Interactive game theater with secret message imaging system

ABSTRACT

A gaming platform including an interactive gaming system comprising multiple game access points physically distributed throughout a destination for conducting a physical-virtual game. Gamers carry electronically detectable identification means for identification at each game access point. Various mobile gaming devices are specified for accepting gamer input and for outputting game directives and content providing unique experiences including secret messages, all in accordance with the on-going game state. Participation earns sales benefits including the ability to purchase special themed toys or to receive discounts. A sales point is a variation of a game access point where the gamer makes a purchase effected by sales benefits and is identified and tracked within the sales point such that displays and actuatable devices in the store respond to the gamer. Gamers use or wear purchased products as gear to increase their in-game opportunities. The system summons gamers to destination game parts including themed characters.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/564,306 filed on Sep. 28, 2017. The present application is acontinuation-in-part of the U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No.15/975,236 entitled INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY ANDENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM filed on May 9, 2018. The present application is acontinuation-in-part of the U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No.16/027,301 entitled PHYSICAL-VIRTUAL GAME BOARD AND CONTENT DELIVERYSYSTEM filed on Jul. 4, 2018. The present application is acontinuation-in-part of the U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No.16/055,078 entitled THEME PARK GAMIFICATION, GUEST TRACKING AND ACCESSCONTROL SYSTEM filed on Aug. 4, 2018.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to a physical-virtual gaming system thatincludes a multiplicity of game access points where a gamer interactswith the gaming system including both receiving secret messages outputby a secret message output device and providing responses includingcaptured images, where the secret messages are only viewable using asecret imaging glass and where responses including captured images ofthe secret messages are used as answers and responses in the gamingsystem.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Prior to the advent of computing systems, games included physical propsand activities and ranged from outdoor sports to indoor card games.Board games have also existed for thousands of years and typicallyinclude a portable surface with markings, pieces to move across theboard in accordance with the markings and possibly additional cards withquestions or directions. Beginning in the early 1970's new types ofgames based upon computers were introduced including both video gamesproduced by companies such as Atari and early virtual reality gamesdeveloped first in laboratories. In today's environment, physical gamesare still prevalent along with a significant number of video games and agrowing number of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) games.Video games are appealing for many reasons, some of which include their“never-ending” nature where gamers move throughout multiple instances toachieve missions on levels of varying difficulty. In a physical boardgame with only a single layout and set of rules, there is no reasonableequivalent to instances and levels, offering a distinct advantage tovideo games. However, while video games often connect a single gamerwith many other gamers in the virtual world, they are played in physicalisolation, for example sitting at a computer or in front of a tv withgaming console. In contrast, physical board games are typically playedat a table where the gamers sit in proximity and can enjoy each other'spresence, thus giving board games a distinct social advantage. In theprior related patent entitled PHYSICAL-VIRTUAL GAME BOARD AND CONTENTDELIVERY SYSTEM, the present inventor taught a new type of physicalboard game with a replaceable surface overlay to provide a physicalequivalent to the virtual instance where a single game board can then becontinuously extended with new surfaces. The board game alsoautomatically tracks individual game pieces and sends digitalinformation regarding the movements of the pieces to an attachedcomputer, where the computer then displays virtual content at least inpart based upon the piece movement, thus adding a strong virtualcomponent that is easily updated by the game manufacturers. Thespecified system has many advantages over traditional physical boardgames and virtual video games.

There is currently a significant effort in the marketplace to perfect VRgaming systems such as the HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR, Sony PlayStationVR bundle and Oculus Rift. What all these systems have in common is aheadset worn by the gamer completely enclosing their eyesight andimmersing them into a virtual 3D world. These VR systems can be usedwith the gamer either sitting or standing, but even standing the gameris typically limited to a smaller region defined by a tracking systemthat follows at least the current location and orientation of theheadset for automatically adjusting the view of the 3D world as seen bythe gamer. Some companies such as The Void are building what they referto as a hyper-reality system that “is a whole-body, fully immersive VRexperience” in which one or more gamers interact with a combinationphysical and virtual world. Each gamer wears a headset driven by aportable computer carried by the gamer in a backpack and to this extentthe game is a typical VR experience. Rather than being confined to asmall space that is typically free of physical props, in thehyper-reality experience a gamer is walking around in a much largeralbeit still enclosed space, typically comprising many rooms andphysical props and to this extent the game is a typical physicalexperience.

AR games are also on the rise. A recent popular example is Pokémon GOwhere gamers walk around in any enclosed or open physical environment,and rather than wearing headsets like VR systems, the gamers are holdingtheir smart phone which is running the AR game that streams images tothe gamer of the actual view in front of their smart phones augmentedwith Pokémon characters as if these characters were actually movingaround in front of them. Like physical games, AR games have an advantageover VR games in that the gamer moves about freely with their eyesuncovered and having the ability to interreact normally with one or moreother gamers. Un-like VR systems, the AR smart phone screen is verysmall and the gamer is not immersed in the virtual content. Un-likephysical games, the gamer must own a smart phone (which typically startsafter 13 years of age,) must walk around holding this smart phone up,and then must deal with the distraction of being unable to concentrateand enjoy the natural physical environment.

In the prior related patent entitled INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKINGMIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, the present inventor specifiedan interactive mirror/display that can be placed in any physical settingand implemented both an object tracking system and a specially adaptedmirror/display. The object tracking system allowed the gamer to provideinput, for example by making gestures using a wizard's wand, while thedisplay allowed the gamer to receive virtual images, where these virtualimages could be secret messages only visible to the gamer wearingspecial glasses. The glasses where implemented using either or both of apolarizer and active shutter. It was also taught that the displayportion of the mirror/display had many variations and uses without themirror portion and with or without the object tracking and its manyvariations. The mirror/display combination, or display alone, as taughtin the related co-pending application is herein generally referred to asa secret messaging output device, for which an additional variationbased upon projectors rather than a display is taught in detail withinthe present application.

The special glasses as taught in the related co-pending application isherein generally referred to as a secret message imaging device, forwhich an additional variation in the shape of a magnifying glass alongwith several alternatives is taught in detail. The article for use by agamer for inputting gestures to the mirror/display was shown as awizard's wand and is herein generally referred to as a game toy, forwhich two additional game toys are taught as examples, including aninteractive sword that vibrates and glows under the control and timingof the system as well as a light gun that includes a variation of theimaging glass as a scope for viewing secret images.

In the related co-pending patent entitled THEME PARK GAMIFICATION, GUESTTRACKING AND ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM, the present inventor specified aplatform for: 1) controlling guest self-access into physically boundedlocations such as a theme park, where control of self-access wasimplemented using a smart ticket with electronics and a guest's smartphone running a special app, 2) tracking guests based in part upon theelectronics in the smart ticket as they visited specific locationswithin the physically bounded location, including identifying individualguests located in individual ride car seats such as found at a themepark, and 3) a gaming system that at least in part used any of thetracking information as well as guest information provided through thespecial app to cause physical devices to uniquely actuate, therebyproviding some customized experience for one or more guests based uponthe combination of tracking information, guest information and gamestate.

In addition to the progression of gaming systems and technology, moviesand virtual content generation have continued to advance. Withtraditional movies, studios invest significant money to create roughly90-120 minutes of video, where the video is then released across anetwork of movie theaters. In the theater, a movie viewer occupies aseat in a room and remains substantially stationary throughout the timeduration of the movie. Viewers identify with movie characters andvicariously enter into the situations and challenges faced by thecharacters.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention anticipates the gamification of physicaldestinations to become gaming theaters for playing physical-virtualgames, where the physical destinations include theme and amusementparks, museums, resorts, casinos, airports, universities, etc.Currently, these physical destinations draw a significant number ofvisitors annually by offering a unique environment typically includingsome special attraction(s) targeted to a sub-culture of individuals.Access to these destinations is typically restricted by a purchasableticket and limited by physical boundaries and times of day. The specialattraction(s) are typically designed for large-group consumption withminimal individuation per guest. Especially for theme and amusementparks, the cost of building the destination and attractions easilyranges from $100M to $1B dollars. While these destinations havebeautiful settings and attractions, they can quickly become boring asthey lack many of the now better understood principals of what isreferred to as “deep engagement.”

In “The Gameful World: Approaches, Issues, Applications” (MIT Press),gamification expert Scott Rigby states: “Specifically, we have outlinedthree basic psychological needs—competence/mastery, autonomy, andrelatedness—and the critical role that these needs play in sustainingengagement, achieving wellness, maximizing value, and motivating lastingbehavior change among other positive outcomes both in games (Rigby andRyan 2011) and elsewhere (Deci and Ryan 2000). The motivationalliterature has repeatedly shown that experiences in life that facilitatethe satisfaction of these needs—whether those experiences be analog ordigital—are associated with the positive outcomes that concern much ofthe gamification movement.”

Regarding the need for competence/mastery, the present inventionanticipates the use of both physical and mental challenges and puzzlesthat combine the best-of physical experiences and the best-of virtualexperiences. Unlike a typical destination such as a theme park, thephysical experiences are not simply designed for increased sensations,e.g. a roller coaster or walking about in a beautiful immersiveenvironment such as Diagon Alley at Universal's “The Wizarding World ofHarry Potter,” but rather they include the interaction with physicaldevices that require dexterity and familiarity to master. One example isa game access point designed around a challenge to disarm a mock bombbefore it explodes, where the bomb game preferably is related to astoryline or theme associated with other content, for example a moviesuch as Die Hard 3 that included a bomb associated with what is referredto as “the water jug riddle.” Furthermore, the present invention createsmultiple physical/mental challenges that are strategically spreadthrough one or more game theater destinations, thus providing thebusiness goals of moving traffic past and through strategic destinationlocations. The present invention anticipates the use of leader boardsthat are available for viewing by gamers, showing their mastery levelsvia a secret message, where for example the gamer verbally commands themirror/display as prior taught in the INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKINGMIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM to provide them with theirstatus, and where the mirror outputs a secret message showing anycombination of the gamer's personal achievement or master level.

Regarding the need for autonomy, the present invention calls formultiple game access points spread throughout any one or moredestinations, where the gamer chooses which game access points to visitas they attempt to achieve their game missions. Game access points areelectronically connected in a collective network, where a gamer'sproximity to any given access point is first detected by the givenaccess point and then communicated to the interactive gaming systemmanaging the entire game being played across the collective network.Especially in the prior related patent entitled THEME PARK GAMIFICATION,GUEST TRACKING AND ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM, the present inventor teachesmultiple means for determining the proximity and location of a gamer,for example as the gamer passes by access chokepoints leading into orout of select destination locations, where the chokepoints are equippedto detect a passive RFID embedded in the gamer's smart ticket. The priorapplication further taught multiple apparatus and methods fordetermining the specific seat in a theme park ride car being occupied bya gamer, thus making a particular seat on a ride car a game accesspoint. In the prior related INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAYAND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, the present inventor taught that an individualsecret message output device, such as a display/mirror, includedcommunications means such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth for determining when apersonal gaming device such as prior taught eye glasses or the presentlytaught magnifying glass came within a given distance of the secretmessage output device, thus allowing the output device connected to thecollective network to transmit detected gamer ID's to the controllinginteractive gaming system, where the interactive gaming system at leastin part uses the gamer's detected ID for summoning the gamer to aparticular game access point.

The preferred gaming system as herein described decides which gamers tosummon at which times to any of various system “destination game parts,”where game parts can include virtually any destination location,destination events held at a destination location at certain times ortracked moving game parts such as a service personal, security personalor a themed character. The preferable gaming system includes or receivesfrom other external systems destination game part information usable formanaging visitor flow to a game part, for example helping to avoidexcessive wait times, where the external systems can be any of thosealready in place at a destination, such as a theme park, for monitoringvisitor/guest flow. Preferable game part information includes the numberof visitors/guests scheduled to be present, or known or estimated to becurrently present, at a game part. The preferable gaming system alsoincludes game part related information for helping a guest find the gamepart or to match potential guest interests with game parts, where forexample game part related information includes a location of the gamepart, access times of the game part, the environment type of the gamepart including indoors or outdoors, the guest profile of the game partsuch as suggested age ranges, languages spoken or available, or interesttypes.

The present invention anticipates that for at least some destinationssuch as a theme park, existing (and potentially external) destinationsystems already track the number of guests present or estimated presentat a destination location, for example including the theme parkdestination locations of a ride, restaurant, sales point, show,viewpoint, etc., where preferably the herein taught system receives anyexisting external destination location information regarding the numberof guests present as well as other location related information such asthe operating times of the destination location, the type of thedestination location including indoors or outdoors, the guest profile ofthe destination location such as suggested age ranges or interest types,etc., where then the system is further adapted to at least in part useany of the received destination location information or destinationlocation related information to determine which of any gamers to summonto the destination location and when to summon the any gamers.

Example game parts include a specific game access point, a sales point,a destination object, a destination symbol, a moving target such asservice personnel or a themed character, a themed party, a concert, afireworks display, a ride or amusement, or any other destinationsub-location pre-known to the interactive gaming system, where thedetermination to summon a gamer to a destination game part is based atleast in part on any one of, or any combination of the gamer ID, acurrently known or last known location of the gamer within thedestination, the current game state related to the gamer and any zero ormore other gamers, or a known number of other gamers already present orsummoned to the specific destination game part, thus as mentionedproviding means for controlling or influencing line queues at thedestination game part. In the preferred invention as herein taught, aspecific game access point can also be a moving target whose currentlocation (and queue lengths) are tracked by the system. For example, thegame access point could be a movable cart with sufficient battery andWi-Fi access so as to be moved about within the destination while alsoremaining in communications with the gaming system. In another preferredcase, the game access point is a mobile gaming device being carried by amoving target that is a themed character, where the gamer is challengedto first find the moving target/themed character and then to interactwith the character or perform some gesture or action that is detectableby the mobile gaming device, where upon successful completion the gameraccumulates points, increases strength, enters a new gaming level, etc.,thus immersing the gamer more deeply into both the game and thedestination. Gamers are summoned by sending signals to any of thegamer's communication capable mobile gaming devices, including theherein taught secret message magnifying glass or prior taught secretmessage eye glasses or game app running on the gamer's mobile devicesuch as a smart phone. The present invention also anticipates that thesmart phone and game app present a destination map that helps direct thegamer to a specific game access point, where the gamer's currentlocation is tracked using any of available technologies including GPS orwi-fi LPS. The present invention anticipates other interfaces fordirecting a gamer to a game access point, such as: a) presenting adigital compass displayed on the herein taught secret message magnifyingglass, where the compass includes a flashing beacon representing thedirection to proceed, or a written instruction such as “proceednorth-by-northwest . . . ”, or b) changing the color of a gaming devicesuch as the herein taught magnifying glass, where the color isrepresentative of the children's game of “getting warmer” (e.g. red incolor) or “getting cooler” (e.g. blue in color) as the gamer wandersaround the destination looking for the game access point.

Gamer's may also approach a game access point and request to interact,where use of the game access point optionally requires any one of, orany combination of: 1) the allocation of accumulated game points orcredits, where the accumulated game points is any combination of creditsfor achievements related to the interactive game or credits forvisiting, doing, or performing at any locations, tasks or challengesrelated to the host destination, for example where the destination is atheme park where the present gaming system is tracking which rides andeven ride seats a gamer has been on and when, thus allowing the game tomotivate gamer's to interact with the destination achieving the businessgoals of the destination, and where for example a gamer is given accessto a particular game access point based at least in part upon the seatthey occupied on a specific ride, 2) answering an immediate challenge,e.g. by solving a problem as presented on any of the gaming devices withUI's for accepting input, including the herein taught secret messagemagnifying glass or prior taught display/mirror with object tracking fordetecting the gestures made by an article such as a wizard's wand, or asmart phone with game app, or 3) entering a lottery by either: a)purchasing some destination product, where proof of purchase includesscanning a game-lottery bar code output by for example by a destinationstore or restaurant, where the bar code is for example printed on thepurchase receipt, or b) providing some personal information for exampleusing a smart phone and game app in order to receive a lottery ticketnumber, where preferably the personal information provided is useful tothe destination especially in combination with the other system dataincluding guest/gamer tracking for the destination to use in performinganalytics, guest services, flow management or other business relatedobjectives, where examples of personal information might includefavorite sports teams or movie characters, home state locations, age,sex, etc., where this personal information is also useable at least inpart by the interactive gaming system for altering the game as perceivedby the gamer.

Regarding the need for relatedness, the present invention addressesthree forms of relatedness, including: 1) the game is relevant to thedestination hosting the game theater, 2) the game is relevant to a themesuch as a movie or a book, and 3) the game is relevant to the chosenpersona of the gamer. For example, the present inventor notes that adestination such as Universal Studios has implemented the storyline andtheme of Harry Potter, and that a Harry Potter game is thereforerelevant to both the gamer's personal location (i.e. being at UniversalStudios) and to a theme of personal interest to the gamer (i.e. HarryPotter.) Currently, Universal Studio's sells theme related products,such as costumes including scarfs and capes and toys including wands,representing Harry Potter characters.

The present inventor anticipates that the object tracking systemsdescribed both herein and in the prior related applications are capableof detecting these theme related products such as clothing and toysusing well-known imaging analysis including now popular machine learningalgorithms implementing for example deep-neural nets, where the detectedtype of clothing or toy is used at least in part to determine how theinteractive gaming system responds to an individual gamer. The presentinvention additionally provides for the use of passive mico RFID devicesembedded within destination products, where at the point-of-purchase thegamer ID information maintained within the gamer tracking system iseither written to the embedded micro RFID and/or associated with theunique RFID code, such that destination products useable as game propsare also identifiable by detecting the embedded RFID at a game accesspoint. The system's ability to automatically interface with destinationshops for associating themed products for use with the destinationsgames provides significant advantages to the destinations andsignificant role-playing relatedness for the gamers. Gamers areencouraged through self-motivation to purchase themed clothing such asscarfs, t-shirts, hats, etc. that are then detectable by either or boththe gamer/device detection apparatus (via RFID) or object trackingapparatus (via image analysis) and methods of the system that areincluded in a given game access point. Once detected, classified andpossibly uniquely identified, the class or identification of thepurchased merchandise are used at least in part along with other knowngamer information by the gaming system to better establish the gamer'spersona.

The present invention further anticipates that some destination themedclothing or toys will only be sold to a gamer that has achieved acertain level of mastery with respect to the game, where the presentsystem provides electronic information proving this mastery to thedestination shop keepers thus controlling gamer access to the selectmerchandise, increasing its perceived value. After sufficient gameachievement, the gamer must then purchase and wear or use this selectmerchandise in order to open up new levels of the game at select gameaccess points. As mentioned, select game access points detect the selectmerchandise, for example using image analysis or RFID detection, wherethe detected merchandise is then automatically associated with thegamer's information in the game system, thus adding to the gamer'spersona, in the virtual world often referred to as “gear.” The presentand prior inventions also anticipate that the gamer enters profile andpersona information using their smart phone and game app or any of thegaming system's input devices.

As those familiar with the business goals of destinations such as themeand amusement parks, museums, resorts, casinos, etc. will wellunderstand, there is a great need to maximize guest engagement, drawingthem more deeply into the destinations existing themes, building,assets, shops, restaurants, products, etc., all of which is addressed bythe present and co-pending applications from the present inventor. Thereis also a need for a gaming system that fits into the existing themes ofthe destination without creating distractions from that destination'sexisting look and presentation. The present invention addresses thisneed using the secret message output devices that present one image tothe public that fits into the destination's look and feel, while thenalso providing any number of other images to gamers, where these otherimages are not disruptive to the visual experience of destination gueststhat are not playing in a game.

In the prior related INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY ANDENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, the present inventor described several variationsof secret message glasses including polarizers and or active shuttersfor viewing and receiving secret messages from any of several variationsof a display/mirror, where the display was for example a modified LCDmonitor. The present invention describes several variations of a secretmessage magnifying glass that also employs combinations of polarizers,active shutters, modulators and transflective displays for allowing agamer to view secret messages as presented by either the prior taughtdisplay/mirror or the herein taught projection systems, where theprojection systems output a spatially aligned combination of a secretmessage images and a complimentary images, each at differentpolarization orientations, and where to the naked eye the secretmessages and complimentary images are visually additive combining to beperceived as a public image.

Given the state-of-the-art in projection systems, reflective surfacesthat maintain the polarization of the incident beam, LCD electronics,non-visible lighting for causing invisible inks to fluoresce in thevisible spectrum, image analysis for object identification andclassification, micro RFIDs, as well as other technologies specifiedherein, it is now possible to achieve the many benefits described by thepresent application in which guests participate in any number of gamesdesigned to engage them more deeply with the destination and with thecontent of the game.

The present invention is anticipated to offer significant benefitsbeyond destinations such as theme and amusement parks, museums, resorts,and casinos including gaming restaurants (such as the popular Dave &Busters,) sporting and music venues, air ports and permanent andsemi-permanent living communities such as retirement villas and collegecampuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the overall structure of system 100,comprising a remote gaming platform 10 that services a multiplicity ofphysical destinations 4, where each destination comprises one or moregame access points 30, and where each game access point 30 comprisesgamer input and output devices including a secret message output device30 or actuated device 50. Gaming platform 10 further comprisesinteractive gaming system 48 that exchanges information with contentrepository 10-2, ad network 10-3 and social platform 10-4. Physicaldestinations 4 are either ticketed destinations 4-b with optionalself-access control 5 a, or non-ticketed destinations 4-a. Ticketeddestinations 4-b include the destination's global eco-system 40, thatcomprises information known and tracked regarding the destination'sguests as well as information related to the destinations attractions,products, services, etc.

FIG. 2 is a variation of the teachings portrayed in prior FIGS. 3 and 4of the related co-pending application entitled INTERACTIVE OBJECTTRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, where prior FIG. 3taught a destination's local environment eco-system 30 as comprisingenvironment sensing system 32, environment control system 34 andinteractive gaming system 36 and where prior FIG. 4 taught adestination's global environment eco-system 40 as theme park (i.e.destination) admin system 42, hotel (if existing) admin system 44, guesttracking system 46 and interactive gaming system 48. The prior local ecosystem 30 is herein referred to as a game access point 30 and several ofthe taught apparatus and methods from the prior co-pending applicationsincluding a smart ticket 2, actuated devices 50 and mobile gamingdevices 60 are shown to be implementations of the originally taughtfeatures of system 30. Global eco-system 40 including a guest trackingsystem 46 and admin system 41 is herein redefined to no longer includeinteractive gaming system 48, where the interactive gaming system 48 ismoved outside of the destination's system 40 and onto gaming platform10.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a secret message output device 22comprising a projector 21-p for projecting a public image 21-img forreflecting off a reflective surface 21-rsf to be viewed through amagnifying glass 15. Magnifying glass 15 comprises a polarizing lens15-lp, leds 15-led, camera 15-cam, wireless communication 15-wc andbutton(s) 15-btn. Wireless communication 15-wc is capable ofcommunication with wireless communication 21-wc included with projector21-p.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of secret message output device 22comprising a projector 21-p, where projector 21-p outputs both a secretmessage image A oriented at a first polarization and complimentary imageB orientated at a second polarization that is orthogonal to the firstpolarization, where the combination of images A and B are perceived by aviewer 2 o using the naked eye as a public image 21-img that isdifferent from secret message image A, and where magnifying glass 15uses lens 15-lp-as to selectively transmit only images A such that agamer 2 s using glass 15 perceives secret message images A and not thecombined A and B public image.

FIG. 5A is a front view diagram of magnifying glass 15-1 further adaptedfrom glass 15 to hold lens 15-lp-as in a ball bearing 15-bb that isattached to handle 15-hdl, thereby allowing lens 15-lp-as to becontinually realigned by the force of gravity acting upon weight 15-wgtthat is attached to lens 15-lp-as.

FIG. 5B is a front view diagram of magnifying glass 15-2 further adaptedfrom glass 15-1 to omit weight 15-wgt and include orientation sensingapparatus 15-ors that provides orientation information to processor15-proc, where processor 15-proc sends signals to motor 15-mtr foradjustably rotating lens 15-lp-as.

FIG. 5C is a front view diagram of magnifying glass 15-3 further adaptedfrom glass 15-2 to omit motor 15-mtr and include additional secondmodulator layer 15-md for forming adapted lens 15-lp-as-md, whereprocessor 15-proc sends signals to modulator 15-md to activate therotation of modulator pixels thus causing the rotation of light raysincoming into lens 15-lp-as-md.

FIG. 6 is a perspective diagram of magnifying glass 15-4 further adaptedfrom glass 15-3 to include an electronic device 15-elc for controllingan LCD projector 15-lcd to controllably emit an image C for reflectionoff internal transflector 15-tf and transmission through lens 15-as suchthat image C is viewable by gamer 2 s augmenting secret message image A.

FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram of four of the major components ofthe presently taught game theater 100 including: 1) game access point30, 2) secret message output device 22, 3) secret message magnifyingglass 15, and 4) interactive gaming system 48. Each of four majorcomponents includes a set of key sub-components.

FIG. 8A is a perspective diagram showing a use of magnifying glass 15 toimage a secret message book 13, especially where back facing camera15-cam-b is shown to have a field-of-view 15-img that is similar to theview of a gamer 2 s looking through glass 15.

FIG. 8B is a perspective diagram showing a use of magnifying glass 15 tofurther emit non-visible energy 15-uv such as ultra-violet using LEDs15-led, where the non-visible energy 15-uv causes invisible ink 13-inkthat is on the surface of secret message book 13 to fluoresce into thevisible spectrum and to therefore become visible to the gamer 2 s.

FIG. 8C is a perspective diagram showing a use of magnifying glass 15 tooutput information such as text using the active shutter in lens15-lp-as, where the gamer 2 s is looking through lens 15-lp-as at ascene, where the scene then acts as backlighting for lens 15-lp-as,where gamer 2 s can cause an image to be captured of the scene by backfacing camera 15-cam-b, and where the image 15-img is captured inresponse to an indication from gamer 2 s using any of an user interfacedevices provided by glass 15 such as button 15-btn.

FIG. 9A is a front view depicting a game access point 30-s that has beenadapted to provide directions to a gamer 2 s, where the access point30-s detects the gamer 2 s's proximity that is then communicated togaming system 48, where gaming system 48 uses the pre-known location ofaccess point 30-s to output a “you are hear symbol” augmenting thecurrent view of gamer 2 s looking through a magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2,15-3 and 15-4, where images 15-img are automatically captured by backfacing camera 15-cam-b for analysis and registration of the gamer 2 s'scurrent view of map 18, and where gaming system 48 directs the output ofaugmenting symbols by lens 15-l, and where augmenting symbols include anext game access location 15-loc based at least in part upon theregistration of the gamer 2 s's current view of map 18 and at least inpart upon the unique identity of the access point 30-s. Map 18 is alsodepicted to include invisible ink registration marks 18-irm for use inregistering captured images 15-img of map 18.

FIG. 9B is a perspective view depicting a scene 31 in a destination 4-a,4-b where a gamer 2 s holds magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 and 15-4over some portion of the scene such as symbol 30-sym that is associatedwith a game access point 30-s, and where access point 30-s comprises amultiplicity of wireless communications devices 30-com 1, 30-com 2 and30-com 3.

FIG. 9C is a perspective view of magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 and15-4 that outputs a compass, text and next game access point locationsymbol 15-loc using lens 15-l, where the output is determined in part bythe registration of the current view of magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2,15-3 and 15-4 with respect to symbol 30-sym.

FIG. 9D is a perspective view of magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 and15-4 that outputs gradient color image using lens 15-l to indicate thedirection of a next game access point 20, where the output is determinedin part by the registration of the current view of magnifying glass15-1, 15-2, 15-3 and 15-4 with respect to symbol 30-sym.

FIG. 9E is a perspective view of magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 and15-4 that outputs location symbol 15-loc augmenting the current view ofdestination game access point 30-sym as currently being viewed by gamer2 s, where the output is determined in part by the registration of thecurrent view of magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 and 15-4 with respectto symbol 30-sym.

FIG. 10A is a front view of a gamer 2 s wearing any of a multiplicity ofelectronic devices such as electronic ticket 2 c, RFID wristband 16-wbor RFID anklet 16, where the presence of electronic devices 2 c, 16-wband 16 are detectable by a reader outputting, receiving and analyzingexciter field 20-ef. Also depicted is camera 55 for capturing images55-img of gamer 2 s wearing sticker 4-stk, where captured images 55-imgare analyzed to determine the presence of sticker 4-stk, and where thepresence of sticker 4-stk on a gamer 2 s is interpreted as an indicationof the gaming persona chosen by gamer 2 s.

FIG. 10B is a perspective view of a sales point 4-sp of a destination4-a, 4-b, where the sales point 4-sp comprises multiple sensors fordetecting at least the entrance into the sales point 4-sp of individualgamers 2 s, where the multiple sensors include pressure sensing doormat4-sp-dm, camera(s) 55 and exciter field 20-ef. The interior of salespoint 4-sp additionally includes any of the multiple sensors includingpressure sensing floor 4-spf.

FIG. 10C is a perspective view of a game access point 30 located withina sales point 4-sp and in communication with gaming system 48, wheregame access point 30 comprises secret message output display 20-d andsecret message output mirror/display 20 as well a pressure sensing floor4-spf and readers for outputting exciter fields 20-ef, and wheremirror/display 20 includes camera 55 for providing object tracking todetect the movements of an article 12 by a gamer 2 s.

FIG. 10D is a front view and block diagram of a gamer 2 s holding anarticle 12, wearing clothing 19 and having a secret message book 13,where each of article 12, clothing 19 and book 13 are mobile gamedevices 60 and comprise an electronic device such as micro-RFID 4-rfid,and where destination sales point receives game information frominteractive gaming system 48 regarding gamer 2 s and uses this gameinformation at least in part to cause electronic device 4-rfid to beupdated with encoded information associated with gamer 2 s. Alsodepicted is any game access point 30 block diagram including agamer/device detection 30-det sub-component capable of detecting theencoded information imparted to the electronic device 4-rfid, where thedetected encoded information is usable at least in part by the any gameaccess point 30 for providing to gaming system 48 to uniquely identifygamer 2 s, and where any access point 30 additionally uses objecttracking 30-det sub-component to capture images of gamer 2 s and gamergear such as 12, 19 and 13, where using object classification andidentification gaming system 48 determines additional gaming informationregarding gamer 2 s.

FIG. 10E is a perspective view and block diagram of magnifying glass 15capturing images 15-img of sales receipts 4-pr 1 and 4-pr 2 as caused tobe printed by sales point 4-sp, where sales point 4-sp receives gameinformation from interactive gaming system 48 regarding gamer 2 s anduses this game information at least in part to cause the printing ofadditional visible or non-visible information onto receipts 4-pr 1 and4-pr 2, where the additional printed information is then captured in animage 15-img for transmission to gaming system 48, and where gamingsystem 48 analyzes images 15-img to determine additional information foruse in the on-going game. Sales point 4-sp is also shown to provideinvisible ink messages for application to secret message book 13, wherethe invisible ink message is then viewable by gamer 2 s using eyeglasses 14 or magnifying glass 15.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a game access point 30 that has beenfurther adapted to include an actuated device 50 that is a game toydispenser 30-gtd, where the dispenser 30-gtd controllably dispenses amobile gaming device 60 such as sword 62-swd while also updating anelectronic device 4-rfid with encoded information associated with gamer2 s as received from gaming system 48, and where game access point 30includes an object tracking 30-ot sub-component for determining themovements of an article 12 being used by a the gamer 2 s, where thedetermined movements are at least in part used to by dispenser 30-gtd tofurther determine what game toy is dispensed.

FIG. 12 is a depiction of a gamer 2 s standing in front of a secretmessage output device 22 at a game access point 30, where game accesspoint 30 includes and object tracking 30-ot sub-component fordetermining the movements of an article 12 such as sword 62-swd beingused by a the gamer 2 s, where the determined movements are at least inpart used to alter the output of secret message images A via device 22,where gamer 2 s views the changing secret messages A through eye glasses14, and where game access point 30 sends signals to article 12 such assword 62-swd controlling effects such as vibration and the emission oflight.

FIG. 13 is a depiction of a traditional light gun 62-gun that has beenfurther adapted to include a scope glass 15-6 including lens 15-lp-as-mdfor controllably transmitting secret message images A as projected byprojector 21-p and reflected off screen 21-rsf.

FIG. 14 is a depiction of a gaming symbol 48-sym that is divided into akey symbol 48-sym-key for display by magnifying glass 15 and a locksymbol 48-sym-lock that is situated somewhere in a destination 4-a, 4-b,where gamer 2 s using glass 15 works to locate the appropriate locksymbol 48-sym-lock for alignment with the key symbol 48-sym-key asviewed through the glass 15, and where an image of the found lock symbol48-sym-lock is captured by the gamer 2 s using glass 15 and provided togaming system 48 for verification.

FIG. 15A is a depiction of a traditional magnetic levitation device 63that has been further adapted to be an actuated device 50 for use by agame access point 30, where access point 30 includes an object tracking30-ot sub-component for determining the movements of an article 12 beingused by a gamer 2 s, where the determined movements are used at least inpart along with game information provided by gaming system 48 to causelevitation device 63 to emit a magnetic field causing sphericalreflective screen 21-rsf-2 to move up, down or spin.

FIG. 15B is a depiction of a spherical reflective screen 21-rsf-2 ontowhich one or more projectors 21-p-1 and 21-p-2 project mapped publicimages 21-img conforming to the spherical surface, where a gamer 2 susing a secret message viewing device such as magnifying glass 15perceives only secret messages A comprised within public images 21-img,and where secret messages A are perceived as either 2D if projected froma single projector, or optionally 3D if projected from two projectors.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth,such as examples of specific components, types of usage scenarios, etc.in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure.It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the presentdisclosure may be practiced without these specific details and withalternative implementations, some of which are also described herein. Inother instances, well known components or methods have not beendescribed in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring thepresent disclosure. Thus, the specific details set forth are merelyexemplary. The specific details may be varied from and still becontemplated to be within the spirit and scope of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring FIG. 1, there is shown a block diagram depicting the overallstructure of game theater system 100, where remote gaming platform 10services a multiplicity of physical destinations 4-a and 4-b, wherenon-ticketed destinations 4-a include homes, shopping malls, resorts,casinos, gaming restaurants, and ticketed destinations 4-b include themeand amusement parts, museums, sporting and music venues and air-ports.Other anticipated physical destinations for use with the present andrelated co-pending applications that may or may not comprise restrictedaccess (such as a ticketing or badge system) include colleges,universities and retirement communities. Regardless of the type ofphysical destination, 4-a or 4-b, each physical destination comprisesone or more fixed or movable game access points such as 30-a, 30-b and30-c, where all access points share common features especiallyincluding: 1) the ability to detect the proximity of one or more gamers2 s (not depicted in FIG. 1) or one or more mobile gaming devices 60(also not depicted in FIG. 1), and 2) the ability to exchangeinformation with a gamer 2 s using input/output means such as hereindescribed for receiving gamer 2 s game actionable responses or providingto the gamer 2 s game challenges, tasks, questions, clues, etc. orotherwise game content, 3) the ability to exchange information such asgamer 2 s input/output with the remote gaming platform 10 over anyavailable communications network including the internet, and whereaccess points 30-a further comprise a secret message output device 22,access points 30-b further comprise an actuated device 50, and accesspoints 30-c further comprise both a secret message output device 22 andan actuated device 50.

Access to ticketed physical destinations 4-b such as theme parks iscontrollable using a self-access control 5 a apparatus and methods astaught in the related co-pending U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser.No. 16/055,078 entitled THEME PARK GAMIFICATION, GUEST TRACKING ANDACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM. To be further reviewed in upcoming FIG. 2,self-access control 5 a includes the use of a smart ticket 2, where theticket 2 includes a remotely detectable ID for use in automaticallytracking a guest of the destination as they move about within andthroughout the destination 4-b.

As taught in the co-pending application Ser. No. 16/055,078, self-accesscontrol 5 a can be used to control access to the entire physicaldestination 4-b (referred to as a “venue” in the co-pendingapplication,) or what was referred to as a “sub-venue” that is any areawithin the venue including for example a fast lane for a theme parkride. The present application further teaches that this same self-accesscontrol 5 a is preferably used in any of its prior taught variations toalso control access to any of the multiplicity of individual game accesspoints such as 30-a, 30-b or 30-c, in either a ticket destination 4-b ora non-ticketed destination 4-a.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art of destinationmanagement, the ability to limit access provides the option of chargingfor access, but then typically also requires the verification ofproof-of-ticket and valid ticket ownership. For theme parks and museums,this verification typically requires staffing and/or sophisticatedtechnology including a commonly shared fingerprint reader that requiresguests to provide sensitive personal information and exposes them topublic germs. The prior co-pending application in combination with thepresent invention teaches an important feature of a gaming theater,where the addition of the gaming theater to a physical destinationcontinues to provide for ticketed/paid access while also not requiringadditional staffing by the physical destination and not requiring thedestinations guests to share personal information such as theirfingerprint or facial image or to be exposed to public germs. Anotheradvantage of these teachings is that individual game access points 30can be further restricted even within a single physical destination 4-aor 4-b, thus providing for multiple paid levels of gaming activities.

Still referring to FIG. 1 and as prior stated, another advantage of theself-access control 5 a apparatus and methods as prior taught in theco-pending application Ser. No. 16/055,078, is that destination guestscan be tracked to specific locations, e.g. in a theme park a building, apublic area, a ride and even a ride seat using any of a combination oftechnologies prior taught. This same prior taught smart ticket 2 (seeFIG. 2 herein) apparatus and methods are useable for determining theproximity of a destination visitor such as a gamer 2 s (not depicted inFIG. 1,) or a mobile gaming device 60 (see FIG. 2 herein) carried by thegamer 2 s with respect to a specific game access point such as 30-a,30-b or 30-c. As access points such as 30-a, 30-b or 30-c detect theincoming and outgoing presence of a particular gamer 2 s and/or any oftheir mobile devices 60, this information is then automaticallyaggregated and transmitted from the destination 4-a or 4-b to the remotegaming platform 10, where it is received and processed by at least theinteractive gaming system 48. The present application and priorco-pending applications anticipate that this detected gamer 2 s presenceat a specific physical destination location including a game accesspoint 30, is also usable to automatically trigger the capturing ofphotos and other related information such as the time and location ofthe captured photo for either automatic or controlled distribution viathe social platform 10-4, where social platforms include for exampleFacebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, What's App, emails, texts andany other commonly shared social network. This feature is hereingenerally referred to as experience logging.

The present application further anticipates that upon detecting a gamer2 s's presence at a game access point 30, ad network 10-3 will processalgorithms considering for example the gamer 2 s's persona, game stateas well as the particular destination and game access point 30identities to select and provide an advertisement to the gamer 2 s,using for example an available secret message output device 22, anactuated device 50 (e.g. by outputting an audible message,) or theherein taught magnifying glass 15 (see FIG. 3) form of a secret messageimaging glass that will be herein shown to include multiple userinterface means for displaying information. Network 10-3 either providesan advertisement directly to a gamer 2 s through any of the availablecommunication paths, and/or provides the advertisement to interactivegaming system 48 for incorporation with the game being played andpresented to the gamer 2 s. Similar to network 10-3, content repository10-2 provides any of available multi-media content either directly tothe gamer 2 s triggered by a detection of the gamer 2 s at a game accesspoint 30, or to interactive gaming system 48 for incorporation with thegame being played and presented with the gamer 2 s, where themulti-media content includes video, secret video and audio. The contentrepository 10-2 is also anticipated to receive images and video ofgamers 2 s captured by system cameras (not depicted) as the gamers 2 sinteract with a particular game access point 30, where the receivedexperience logging images and video is optionally provided to either theinteractive gaming system 48 for incorporation as game content, thesocial platform 10-3 for distribution as social content, or the adnetwork 10-3 for combination and use with other ad content.

In the related co-pending U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No.15/975,236 for an INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY ANDENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM the present inventor anticipated that at least eachof the ticketed physical destination 4-b included a global eco-system 40that further comprised a guest tracking system 46 as well asadministration systems 41 (see FIG. 2) including both a theme parkadministration system 42 and a hotel administration system 44 (seeco-pending application FIG. 4.) The co-pending application alsoanticipated that the global eco-system 40 included the interactivegaming system 48, which is herein shown to be alternatively includedwithin remote gaming platform 10 as a preferred means for a singlegaming platform 10 to service multiple physical destinations 4-a and 4-bwith possibly un-related ownership as a cloud services, as will be wellunderstood by those familiar with software architecture includingsoftware as-a service (SAAS) models. As will be well understood by thosefamiliar with ticketed destinations, it may be desirable to maintainsome or all of interactive gaming system 48, content repository 10-2, adnetwork 10-3, or social platform 10-4 within the exclusive control ofthe physical destination global eco-system 48, as opposed to sharing theinformation on the remote gaming platform 10. As such, the configurationpresented in FIG. 1 should be considered exemplary, as many variationsare possible without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Still with respect to FIG. 1, gaming platform 10 provides gamechallenges, tasks, questions, clues, etc. or otherwise game content to agamer 2 s and receives gamer 2 s's “actionable responses” that are forexample answers or information interpretable as answers, or otherwiseproof of the completion of a challenge, task or mission, etc. Severalapparatus and methods are herein described and have been prior describedin the related applications for exchanging game input/output between thegaming platform 10 and a gamer 2 s, where a special focus has been andis herein continued with respect to the output of secret message thatare substantially only received by one or more controllably selectedgamers 2 s and otherwise not perceivable to any other not selectedgamers 2 s or on-lookers. While the present invention places asignificant focus on only certain types of gamer input/output apparatusand methods, this should not be considered as a limitation of thepresent invention, as other apparatus and methods will be understood asuseful for accepting input or providing output to a gamer 2 s throughany of the fixed or movable game access points 30. However, there isherein a general focus on either secret message output devices 22,actuated devices 50 or mobile gaming devices 60 (see FIG. 2.)

Gaming platform 10 also provides any of game content, ads and (actuated)device commands via its communications link with any of the game accesspoints 30 within any of destinations 4-a or 4-b. As will be appreciatedby those skilled in the arts of communication networks and local versusremote processing, it is possible that much of the higher bandwidthinformation such as game content from repository 10-2 be stored locallywithin a given game access point 30, and where gaming platform 10 sendscommands to the given game access point 30 to output any of this locallystored content, i.e. as opposed to for example streaming this contentfrom the cloud to the given game access point 30. As such, theconfiguration presented in FIG. 1 should be considered exemplary, asmany variations are possible without departing from the scope of thepresent invention.

Referring next to FIG. 2, there is shown a variation of the teachings ofthe prior co-pending U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No.15/975,236 entitled INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY ANDENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, especially as these teachings relate to a globalenvironment eco-system 40 and local environment eco-system 30. The priorco-pending application taught what is herein generally referred to as asecret message output device 22 and what was prior specifically referredto as a mirror/display 20 (see e.g. FIGS. 1 and 2A of the co-pendingapplication.) This secret message output device 22 accepted input from,and provided output to a guest of a destination, where the examples ofthe co-pending application focused on a theme park. Anticipated physicallocations for the device 22 included inside of the theme park or in ahotel room, either as a mirror/display or simply a display without amirror apparatus. The device 22 optionally included means for detectingthe presence and identity of a guest as well as tracking the gestures ofan article 12 such as a wizard's wand being moved by the guest, wherethe gestures where interpretable as commands. The co-pending applicationfurther specified that the secret message output device 22 was capableof working with a local interactive gaming system 36, other localenvironment sensors 32 for sensing any of a number of conditions in thelocal environment as well as an environment control system 34 foractuating or controlling any number of devices for creating localenvironment effects. The co-pending solutions anticipated that the guestwould be connecting with other guests in a destination (theme park) widegame, where also the guest's local environment would become responsiveto the state and changes in the game, e.g. automatically making thundersounds while flashing lights.

Still referring to FIG. 2 herein, the prior co-pending applicationroughly divided the information systems necessary for providing theprior taught functions into a local environment eco-system 30 and aglobal environment eco-system 40. The local system 30 is herein renamedto a game access point 30 and continues to include the apparatus andmethods generally taught in the co-pending application as environmentsensing system 32, environmental control system 34 and interactivegaming system 36. The global environment system 40 still preferablyincludes guest tracking system 46 and administration system 41, whilethe global interactive gaming system 48 is herein taught as separatefrom global eco-system 40, instead becoming a part of remote gamingplatform 10. For destinations such as a theme park that includesmultiple resorts, administration system 41 would preferably comprise atheme park administration system 42 separate from any one or more hoteladministration systems 44 (see prior application for depiction of 42 and44.)

Still referring to FIG. 2 herein, and specifically to the functions ofguest tracking, the present inventor is also co-pending for an U.S.Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 16/055,078 entitled THEME PARKGAMIFICATION, GUEST TRACKING AND ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM. In thisco-pending application, guest tracking was shown to rely upon a smartticket 2 that preferably included some form of an extended rangereadable ID, preferably in the form of a passive RFID. The priorapplication made note that such systems were well known in the art fortracking individuals, especially as they passed through physical“choke-points” leading into or out of a desired tracking location, forexample a specific ride at a theme park. The prior application expandedupon the state-of-the-art to use additional technologies includingpressure sensing plastics and fabrics, as well as cameras and imageanalysis, to combine with new methods for organizing and processinginformation in order to provide guest tracking down to the granularityof a single ride seat on a theme park ride. The smart ticket 2 was alsotaught to include a “venue app” (i.e. destination app) running on theguest's smart phone, where this app allowed the guest to providesensitive personal information such as their fingerprint or image forproving their own identity without requiring touching a commonly sharedfingerprint reader, ultimately allowing guests to self-control their ownaccess to restricted areas without requiring the addition of destinationstaff.

The apparatus and methods for sensing the presence and proximity of aguest as they entered what is herein referred to as a game access point30 (still including a ride at a theme park,) were shown to fit withinthe earlier generalized teachings within the co-pending U.S.Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 15/975,236 for an INTERACTIVEOBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM with respect tolocal eco-system 30's environment sensing system 32. As such, the guesttracking apparatus and methods for locally sensing the guest remain apart of sensing system 32 and are so depicted in the present FIG. 2,whereas guest tracking system 46 is representative of the globaldestination-wide software and database necessary for tracking themultiplicity of individual guest's movements across the multiplicity ofgame access points 30. Hence, local apparatus for detecting guestpresence remain within game access points 30, whereas the resultingguest tracking information first determined by all access points 30 isthen collectively associated and managed within guest tracking system46, and it is preferably guest tracking system 46 as a part of globaleco-system 40 that communicates gamer (guest) tracking data to remotegaming platform 10.

The present application continues to teach that the same apparatus fortracking the proximity of guests (and therefore the sub-set of guestswho are also gamers) with respect to a game access point 30 aresufficient for detecting the presence of what is herein referred tomobile gaming devices 60. In the prior co-pending U.S. Non-Provisionalapplication Ser. No. 15/975,236 for and INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKINGMIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, the present inventor taughtapparatus and methods for tracking secret message eye glasses 14 used bya gamer (guest 2 s in the co-pending application) to reveal secretmessages, where the apparatus including Bluetooth, wi-fi localpositioning systems as well as image processing of the emission ofnon-visible light by LEDs embedded within the glasses 14. The presentapplication generally refers to secret message eye glasses 14 and priortaught article 12 (e.g. a wizard's wand) as mobile gaming devices 60,and will herein teach additional devices 60. As with the trackinginformation detected by the apparatus and methods of the game accesspoint 30 with respect to guests and gamers, the tracking informationdetected with respect to all mobile gaming devices 60 is communicated toglobal guest tracking system 46 for additional communication tointeractive gaming system 48. Especially when tracking game toys such asarticle 12, the tracking apparatus and methods were generally taught aslocal interactive gaming system 36, where gaming system 36 generallyalso comprises the secret message output devices 22, as taught bothprior and herein, all as depicted with respect to the present FIG. 2.

What is most important to understand about the relationship between theprior co-pending applications and the present invention is that theoriginal teachings for a mirror/display 20 in communications with alocal environment eco-system 30 and global environment eco-system 40where further detailed to specify a guest tracking and self-access 5 asystem using a smart ticket 2, where the guest tracking information isaggregated into the global guest tracking system 46 thus providingvaluable information for destination wide-gaming. Specific exampleswhere also provided of actuated devices 50 including theme park rideexamples of positioned, time special effects 56 a and positionedun-timed special effects 56 b, thus providing valuable physical meansfor effecting a gamer that worked in conjunction with the virtual meansof outputting secret messages for viewing through prior taught eyeglasses 14. The present application further delineates and expands uponthese teachings by moving the global interactive gaming system 48 awayfrom the exclusive domain of the destination (i.e. global eco-system 40)to a remote function capable of simultaneously serving multipledestinations providing a valuable extension to the gaming system. Thepresent application also generalizes the mirror/display 20 into a secretmessage output device 22 and teaches a second projection-based apparatusand method for achieving a similar effect from the perspective of boththe gamer and non-gamer. The prior eye glasses 14 are generalized assecret messaging image devices within a broader category of mobiledevices 60, a category that also includes game toys such as priorexample wand 12. A new alternative imaging glass is herein taught in theform of a magnifying glass 15 and a new interactive game toy is taughtin the form of a sword 62-swd (see FIGS. 11 and 12) and a gun 62-gun(see FIG. 13).

Referring now to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, as will be well understood by thosefamiliar with sophisticated hardware and software architectures such asdescribed in the present and co-pending applications, many variationsexist, and therefore the preferred and alternative apparatus and methodsas taught should be considered as exemplary, rather than as limitationsof the present invention. The scope of the present system includes anygaming system that provides secret messages to gamers 2 s whilesimultaneously providing public images to non-gamers 2 o, a veryimportant feature for converting a themed destination 4-a, 4-b into agaming theater 100 without adversely affecting the experiences of thenon-gamer 2 o. The scope also includes independent game access points30, with or without separate gamer self-serve access 5 a, where eachaccess point is capable of minimally: 1) detecting and tracking thepresence of the gamer 2 s and any of the gamer's mobile gaming devices60 including secret imaging devices, game clothing and game toys, 2)communicating with an interactive gaming 48 system capable of managinggames limited to a single physical destination 4-a, 4-b or extendingacross multiple physical destinations 4-a, 4-b, especially where thedestinations 4-a, 4-b have different ownership, themes, ticketing,control systems, etc., 3) controlling any combination of secret messageoutput devices 22 and actuated devices 50 with respect to a gamingsystem that in part uses the detected and tracked gamer 2 s and mobilegaming device 60 information to controllably alter the gaming experienceof an individual gamer 2 s, including the presentation of ads 10-3 andcontent 10-2 along with the exchange of game questions and answers, and4) automatically capturing images and video of any of the multiplicityof gamers 2 s for aggregation in a content repository 10-2 ordistribution across any social media platform 10-4, where the images andvideo are associable based upon the tracking information associated withindividual gamers 2 s, and where the aggregated information furtherincludes any of the other data representative of the gamer 2 s'sindividual experiences such as questions and answers, achievementlevels, persona, etc.

The present invention will expand upon this scope to further includeamongst other important features any destination gaming system that: 5)provides gamer identification information for embedding within orassociating with one or more products sold by destination shops, wherethe products are then used by the gamer 2 s as mobile gaming devices 60at one or more game access points 30, where the products as devices 60are then automatically detected and tracked by the access points 30, andwhere the tracking information is used at least in part to effect thegaming experience of the gamer, 6) provides gamer information to adestination store, for example selling food or merchandize to the gamer2 s, where the gamer information is used at least in part to determineany of sales benefits that effect the gamer 2 s's final sale, includingproducts available to purchase, price or discounts, 7) provides gamerinformation to a destination store, for example selling food ormerchandize to the gamer 2 s, where the store at least in part uses thisinformation in combination with store information regarding thepurchased products or services to output game information on the gamer'ssales receipt, where the game information includes visible markings suchas text, pictures or bar codes or non-visible markings such as madeusing non-visible ink, and where the gamer 2 s uses a mobile game device60 to either enter the game information or capture an image of the gameinformation, and where the entered or captured image of the gameinformation are used at least in part as a gamer's actionable responsefor effecting the gaming experience of the gamer, 8) provides anautomatic vending system comprising any form or structure, where thevending system that is connected to the gaming system preferably as anactuated device 50 in conjunction with a game access point 30, where thegamer 2 s interacts with the vending system to cause a product to bedispensed to the gamer including a mobile gaming device 60, where thedispended products as devices 60 are then automatically detected andtracked by the access points 30, and where the tracking information isused at least in part to effect the gaming experience of the gamer, 9)provides a mobile gaming device 60 such as the herein taught magnifyingglass 15 including apparatus and methods for directing a gamer on asearch to find any one or more destination locations including aspecific game access point 30 or any other pre-known destinationlocation that is not a game access point 30, 10) provides a mobilegaming device 60 such as the herein taught magnifying glass 15 includingapparatus and methods for providing a visible “key” output on theimaging device that can be visually aligned to a visible “lock” embeddedor attached to the destination 4-a, 4-b, where the gamer 2 s aligns thekey with the lock and captures an image of the combined symbol, andwhere the image of the combined symbol is used at least in part toeffect the gaming experience of the gamer, 11) where a gamer 2 sinteracts with a game toy that is tracked at a game access point 30, andwhere images are output at least in part in response to the detectedpresence or movements of the gamer or game toy, 12) where a gamer 2 sinteracts with a game toy that is detected at a game access point 30,and where the game access point sends signals to the game toy that causephysical changes to the toy including vibration and outputting light,13) where a gamer 2 s uses an secret message image device 22 such asprior taught eye glasses 14 or herein taught magnifying glass 15 tocapture images that are transmitted to the gaming system for processingin order to classify and identify objects within the captured images,and where the resulting classification or identification information areused at least in part as a gamer's actionable response to effect thegaming experience of the gamer, 14) where a gamer uses an secret messageimaging device such as prior taught eye glasses 14 or herein taughtmagnifying glass 15 to first emit non-visible energy such as ultravioletlight to expose a secret message formed using invisible ink, where thegamer 2 s then uses the imaging device to capture an image of the secretmessage, and where the secret message is used at least in part as agamer's actionable response to effect the gaming experience of thegamer, 15) where a gamer 2 s uses a secret message imaging device suchas prior taught eye glasses 14 or herein taught magnifying glass 15, orthe gamer 2 s uses their smart phone running a game app to captureimages of either a themed character or another guest prior to thatcharacter or another guest first capturing their image, where the timingof the capturing of images by gamers 2 s with respect to themedcharacters or other guests is then used at least in part as a gamer'sactionable response to effect the gaming experience of the gamer 2 s, or16) where a gamer 2 s uses a secret message imaging device such as priortaught eye glasses 14 or herein taught magnifying glass 15, or the gameruses their smart phone running a game app to capture images of anydestination location, object or symbol, or secret messages, where any ofthe images or the timing or the sequence of their capture is then usedat least in part as a gamer's actionable response to effect the gamingexperience of the gamer.

Referring next to FIG. 3, there is shown a perspective view of a secretmessage output device 22 for providing a public image 21-img output byan image projection source 21-p for receiving through an secret messageimaging device such as magnifying glass 15 or eye glasses 14, where thepublic image 21-img further comprises a secret image A polarized in afirst orientation as well as an orthogonally polarized complimentaryimage B (as to be discussed in greater detail with respect to upcomingFIG. 4,) and where substantially only the secret image A is viewablethrough the magnifying glass 15 (or eye glasses 14) and only the publicimage is viewable with the naked eye. The present application is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No.15/975,236 entitled INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY ANDENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM. The base patent taught the output of public andsecret images using various display technologies especially including anLCD display fitted with a second modulator, where the second modulatorencoded the secret image within the output public image. The base patentalso anticipated the use of projection systems for outputting a secretimage within a public image 21-img as will be herein described ingreater detail.

Referring now to both FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, image projection source 21-pmay be a single projector 21-p capable of outputting the public image21-img comprising the secret A and complimentary B images, where thesecret and complementary images have orthogonal polarizations, such asleft/right circular or vertical/horizontal linear. The secret messageimaging device such as magnifying glass 15 includes an appropriatelyselected polarizer for substantially blocking the complimentary image Bwhile also transmitting the secret image A (as shown in detail in FIG.4.) As will be well understood by those familiar with polarizationsystems, if the complimentary image B portion of public image 21-img isoutput by projector 21-p with a vertical polarization, and then isreflected off a reflective surface 21-rsf comprising a metallic versusnon-metallic paint, the complimentary image B portion will substantiallyretain its vertical polarization. Likewise, if the secret image Aportion of the public image 21-img is output by projector 21-p with ahorizontal polarization, and then is reflected off a reflective surface21-rsf comprising a metallic versus non-metallic paint, the secret imageA portion will substantially retain its horizontal polarization. As willalso be well understood by those familiar with polarization systems, ifthe magnifying glass 15 includes a polarization film placed such thatits direction of polarization is essentially horizontal to the verticalaxis of the magnifying glass 15, then if the magnifying glass 15 is heldin a substantially vertical/upright position with respect to thereflective surface 21-rsf, the orientation of the polarizing film 15-lpwill be parallel with the horizontally polarized reflection of thesecret image A, such that the secret image A will be viewable throughthe magnifying glass 15. As will be further understood, in thisorientation between the magnifying glass 15, reflective surface 21-rsfand projector 21-p, the complimentary image B portion of public image21-img will be substantially blocked.

Still referring to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, as the same magnifying glass 15 isrotated by 90 degrees, e.g. such that the magnifying glass 15 handle isheld in a substantially horizontal/sideways position with respect to thereflective surface 21-rsf, the orientation of the polarizing film 15-lpwill become vertically aligned and therefore now perpendicular with thehorizontally polarized reflection of the secret image A, such that thesecret image A will be substantially blocked by the linear polarizer15-lp of the magnifying glass 15, while the complimentary image B willbe transmitted. The present inventor anticipates that this variabilitywill be an attractive feature for the user of the magnifying glass 15,as it adds to the suspense of the secret message. However, as will bediscussed later in the present application with respect to upcomingFIGS. 5A, 5 b and 5 c, at least three means are provided forautomatically adjusting magnifying glass 15 apparatus such that thesecret images A contained within the public images 21-img are alwayssubstantially viewable through magnifying glasses 15 (or eye glasses 14)while the complimentary images B are always substantially blocked.

Referring now to FIG. 3, also depicted are wireless communication means21-wc within projector 21-p and wireless communication means 15-wcwithin magnifying glasses 15. As will be well understood by thosefamiliar with 3D imaging systems and from a careful reading of thepresent invention's parent application U.S. Non-Provisional applicationSer. No. 15/975,236 entitled INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAYAND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, it is possible to emit secret images A withinpublic images 22 that are timed through communication between means21-wc and 15-wc with the opening and closing of an LCD active shutterplaced over linear polarizer 15-lp on magnifying glass 15. As describedin detail in the base co-pending application, if several users of asecret message imaging device, such as eye glasses 14 (shown in FIG. 5of the parent application,) or magnifying glass 15 shown in the presentfigure, are standing in front of a reflective surface 21-rsf at the sametime, then each use will see the same secret message A assuming thattheir secret message imaging device such as magnifying glass 15 isproperly oriented to the polarization angle of the secret images A, allas will be well understood by those familiar with polarization systemsand from a careful reading of the base and present applications. What ispreferable, and as taught in the base co-pending application, bycombining an active shutter with the linear polarizer 15-lp, it ispossible to send control signals to all imaging devices (e.g. magnifyingglass 15 or eye glasses 14) that are in view of the reflective surface21-rsf, such that the active shutter layer on all imaging devices thatare not intended to see the secret image A is caused to be opaque at thesame time that a secret image A is output by projector 21-p, whereas theactive shutter layer on all imaging glasses that are meant to see thesecret image A is caused to be transparent at the same time that asecret image A is output by projector 21-p. Hence, the ability of ansecret message imaging device such as magnifying glass 15 taught in thepresent invention or eye glasses 14 taught in the base application totransmit a secret image A for viewing by a viewer/gamer 2 s is dependentupon the type (e.g. circular versus linear) and orientation (e.g.left/right or vertical/horizontal respectively) of the polarizationlayer of the imaging glass, and can be made further dependent upon theopacity of an active shutter layered onto the polarization layer, wherewithout an active shutter layer all users of appropriate imaging deviceswill see the same secret image A and with an active shutter layer it ispossible to restrict the secret images A to a select one or more imagingdevices.

Still referring to FIG. 3, as will be understood by those familiar with3D projection systems, LCD technology and from a reading of the parentapplication U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 15/975,236, thereare several well-known apparatuses for implementing projector 21-p. Forexample, one approach is to use two projectors 21-p, where a firstprojector 21-p outputs the secret image A while the second projectoroutputs the complimentary image B, spatially aligned on surface 21-rsfso as to create public-secret image 22. This technique is wellunderstood for projecting left-eye/right-eye spatially aligned images ina 3D movie theater projection system. As will be well understood bythose familiar with human vision, the naked eye viewing the reflectivesurface 21-rsf will combine the secret A and complimentary B images intowhat the viewer will perceive to be a single public image 21-img. Aswill also be understood, if the secret image A is output simultaneouslyor near simultaneously with the complimentary image B, then light fromthe two images is perceived as additive, as such the intensity values ofred, green and blue in the secret image A will add to the intensityvalues of red, green and blue in the complimentary image B. Using thisunderstanding, it is possible to create a secret image A that forexample contains some text, e.g. using pixels set to a red intensity of128, a blue intensity of 128, and a green intensity of 0. The remainingnon-text pixels in the secret image A are then displayed for examplewith a red intensity of 0, a blue intensity of 0, and a green intensityof 0. As seen through the magnifying glass 15 held at the properorientation so as to only transmit the secret image A, the user 2 s (seeFIG. 4) of the magnifying glass 15 will see magenta (red-blue) text witha background color matching the ambient lighting colors reflected off ofreflective surface 21-rsf (since the light comprising complimentaryimage B is blocked by magnifying glass 15.)

If simultaneously, or near-simultaneously a complimentary image B isthen also output that for example contains pixels that are spatiallyaligned at the reflective surface 21-rsf with the text of secret imageA, and these complimentary B text pixels are set to a red intensity of128, a blue intensity of 128, and a green intensity of 256, then thesecomplimentary B text pixels will cause the naked eye to see the secretimage A text as being white (rather than magenta.) In this example, theRGB values of the secret message A text and complimentary image B textadd up to be red=256, blue=256 and green=256, which is then perceived bythe naked eye as white of intensity 256. The careful reader will notethat in the present example, all non-text pixels in both the secretimage A and complimentary image B are set to RGB values of 0, thusproviding no additional light to the naked eye beyond the reflection ofthe ambient lighting off reflective surface 21-rsf. Under circumstancesof a well-lit room such as in a museum, this is expected to be ideal asthis minimizes the overall output of light. However, the followingpossibilities are illustrative of the range of uses of the presentinvention. First, all of the non-text pixels in the complimentary imageB could be set to RGB values of 256, and thus all pixels in the publicimage 21-img would have RGB values of 256 yielding an even intensity ofwhite 256 across the entire surface 21-rsf. Second, all of the non-textpixels in the secret image A could be set to some RGB values giving thenon-text portion of secret image A some particular color (ideally notmagenta,) including for example white at a lower intensity of 50, wherethen the non-text pixels of complimentary image B are appropriately setsuch that the addition of the individual R, B and G intensity values foreach non-text A and B pixel arrives at some common value, again forexample 50. With all non-text pixels set to a combined red=50, blue=50and green=50, then the non-text portion of the public image 21-img willbe perceived as a white light of intensity 50, whereas the text portionof the public image 21-img will be perceived as white light of intensity256. Again, the careful reader will see that many variations arepossible for accomplishing different goals for public image 21-img whilestill outputting the same secret message A.

This same principal of additive light and human perception applies toboth temporal as well as spatial perception. In other words, rather thanusing two projectors 21-p to simultaneously output the secret A andcomplimentary B images, thus spatially combining the images onreflective surface 21-rsf at the same moment in time, it is possible touse a single projector that temporally alternates between the output ofa secret image A and the complimentary image B, at a frame rate fastenough so that the naked eye combines any two subsequent images, all aswill be well understood by those familiar with human perception andmovie display systems. Manufacturers such as RealD sell a push-pullelectro-optical liquid crystal modulator that is placed immediately infront of a single projector 21-p (or computer screen) for alternatelypolarizing the light from each subsequent video frame. Known as the“ZScreen,” the alternating images are left-circularly polarized and thenright-circularly polarized. As will also be well understood by thosefamiliar with 3D projection systems, it is possible to use a similarapproach but to alternate between vertical-linear polarization andhorizontal-linear polarization. Either method is considered sufficientfor the workings of the present invention, although the circularpolarization approach offers the advantage that as the magnifying glass15 is rotated, the secret image A will still be transmitted, and thecomplimentary image B will still be blocked, all as is well known in theart.

As the careful reader of the parent U.S. Non-Provisional applicationSer. No. 15/975,236 will see, it is also possible to build an LCDdisplay for outputting a public image in its final red, blue and greenintensity values, and then to adapt this LCD display with an overlaidsecond modulator which then further encodes this public image with asecret image A. Since the LCD display outputs the public image in aspecific linear polarization orientation, the second modulator willtwist this light up to 90 degrees on a pixel-by-pixel basis, encoding itsuch that the linear polarizer 15-lp in the magnifying glass 15 will actas an analyzer revealing the secret image A by essentially cutting offvarious amounts of the red, blue or green light in the public image.This can be thought of as a subtractive, rather than additive technique.By using projectors that work with linear polarization rather thancircular polarization, the magnifying glass 15 of the present invention,as well as the eye glasses 14 taught in the base application, will workwith both the secret image A output by a first projector 21-p adding tothe complimentary image B subsequently output by the first projector21-p (or simultaneously output by a second projector 20-p,) as well asthe encoded secret image A being subtracted from the public image outputby an LCD display that has been further adapted to include a secondmodulator as taught in the parent patent. However, using linearpolarizers for 15-lp within magnifying glass 15 brings up the issuewhere a user must then properly align the magnifying glass 15 to thereflective surface 21-rsf and projector 21-p, all as prior discussed.Also, as prior discussed, this is anticipated to be an acceptable effectcontributing to the mystery of the secret message. It is also noted thatthe preferred addition of an active shutter overlaid onto linearpolarizer 15-lp in magnifying glass 15 works to perform the prior statedgoals (and as taught in the base application,) regardless of theorientation of the magnifying glass 15 with respect to the reflectivesurface 21-rsf and projector 21-p.

Still referring to FIG. 3, it is also possible to use an LCD projectorthat has been further adapted to include a second modulator, followingthe same teachings as described in the parent U.S. Non-Provisionalapplication Ser. No. 15/975,236. Using this approach, the projector 21-pwill output a single public image 21-img that includes additionalencoding representing the secret image A, where the secret image A isthen revealed as the linear polarizer 15-lp of the magnifying glass 15subtracts red, blue or green intensity from the public image 21-img. Aswill be understood by those familiar with polarization, imaging systems,human perception, projectors and displays, as well as from a carefulreading of the base and present applications, the various apparatusdescribed herein as well as in the parent application should beconsidered as exemplifications for encoding secret messages rather thanlimitations, as other apparatus are possible for achieving the same orsimilar additive or subtractive public images without departing from thescope of the present invention.

Still referring to FIG. 3, magnifying glass 15 preferably comprises: a)camera 15-cam for taking pictures representative of the same visualimages a user would see as they looked through the lens 15-lp, wherecamera 15-cam is a adapted to detect the secret messages similar to theadaptations described herein for lens 15-lp and all of its variants(such as 15-lp-as and 15-lp-as-md as to be described in upcoming FIG. 5c,) b) button(s) 15-btn for accepting user input, for example indicatingthat a picture should be captured using camera 15-cam, where button(s)15-btn is alternatively adapted to include a finger print detectorexactly similar to technology used on smart phone's such as the IPhone,such that an individual user of the magnifying glass 15 is identifiableby a finger print and this identity information is usable at least inpart as information for the gaming system 48 of the present invention100, and c) lighting 15-led, where visible light LED's project lighttowards the user 2 s (see FIG. 4) indicative of the state of themagnifying glass 15 or game situation for which the magnifying glass 15is being uses as a mobile gaming device 60, and where non-visible lightsuch as ultra-violet light is projected away from the user 2 s towardsan object being viewed through the lens 15-lp, such that if the objectincludes an invisible ink responsive to the non-visible light for thenfluorescing visible light then the user 2 s will be enabled to see theotherwise invisible ink while looking through the magnifying glass 15.

Referring next to FIG. 4, there are shown secret message output device22 with exemplary rays A and B being projected onto reflective surface21-rsf where after rays A and B are then reflected off surface 21-rsftowards both the naked eye of a viewer 2 o and the magnifying glass 15,through which a viewer 2 s is looking at the surface 21-rsf. The lens15-lp-as of glass 15 preferably also includes an active shutter fortiming with at least the projector 21-p that outputs the rays of secretimage A, all as prior discussed in relation to FIG. 3 and as will befurther understood by a careful reading of the base co-pendingapplication. Also, as discussed in relation to FIG. 3, the properlyoriented linear polarizer 15-lp blocks complimentary image rays B whiletransmitting secret image rays A. It is well known in the art of 3Dprojection systems that light reflected from a non-metallic (dielectric)surface varies strongly with the direction of polarization and the angleof incidence and that this is not the case for an electric conductorsuch as a metal and therefore the present inventor prefers thatreflective surface 21-rsf comprises a metallic paint or similar so as toreflect rays A and B with minimal polarization attenuation. There aremany well-known paints in the marketplace that are sufficient for thepurposes of the present invention. The present inventor also notes thatthe screens used in movie theaters for watching 3D movies projected fromdual projectors such as Runco's d-73D are also ideal for use asreflective surface 21-rsf. There are many well-known manufactures ofthese 3D movie screens such as Mocomtech, Stewart Silver and EliteScreens.

Referring next to FIG. 5A, there is shown variation magnifying glass15-1, comprising magnifying glass 15 that is further adapted to includefrictionless ball bearing 15-bb for containing linear polarizer andactive shutter lens 15-lp-as. What is most important to see is that lens15-lp-as is now free to rotate inside of the ball bearing 15-bb, wherethe bearing 15-bb is then attached to the magnifying glass handle15-hdl. Affixed to freely rotating lens 15-lp-as is sufficient weight15-wgt for causing lens 15-lp-as to continuously self-align due to theforce of gravity pulling on the weight 15-wgt, where the goal of theself-alignment is to maintain the proper orientation of the linearpolarizer within the lens 15-lp-as with respect to the anticipated angleof polarization of the reflected rays comprising secret message A offsurface 21-rsf (see especially FIG. 4.) Ball bearings are well-known inthe art and many options are available with varying price andcoefficients of friction. The technique of weighting the interiorobject, in this case the lens 15-lp-as, is also well-known in the art.Again, what is most important is that as the magnifying lens 15 is heldupright, for example so that a viewer 2 s may look through towards asurface 21-rsf as shown in FIG. 4 such that secret message A isrevealed, and then as the lens 15-1 is rotated in the X-Y vertical plane(see FIGS. 5B and 5 c) the lens 15-lp-as is continuously adjusted by theforce of gravity to maintain its “upright” linear alignment, e.g.horizontal, that corresponds to the linear polarization angle of theincoming secret message rays A. The sensitivity of the continuousalignment will at least depend upon the amount of weight 15-wgt, thecoefficient of friction in the ball bearing 15-bb, as well as the speedand angle of rotation caused by the viewer 2 s, all as will be wellunderstood by those skilled in the art of mechanical engineering. Thesensitivity of adjustment is anticipated to degrade as the magnifyingglass 15-1 is rotated about the Y-Z plane, specifically, as the glass15-1 is for example tilted forward from an ideal vertical alignment tolean towards the surface 21-rsf being viewed.

Referring next to FIG. 5B, there is shown variation magnifying glass15-2, comprising magnifying glass 15-1 that has been further adapted toomit weight 15-wgt and include orientation sensors 15-ors, processor15-proc and motor 15-mtr. Orientation sensors 15-ors are well known inthe art with a common use within today's smart phones. Typical sensorsinclude accelerometers (one for every axis X, Y and Z) a gyro andmagnetometer, where the combined data set increases accuracy, theprocessing of which is sometimes referred to as “sensor fusion.” What ismost important is the regardless of the specific sensor(s) chosen,processor 15-proc receives sufficient information for determining inreal-time at least the approximate rotation in the X-Y plane and ideallyalso the rotation in the Y-Z and X-Z planes. Using this real-timeinformation, processor 15-proc is able to controllable adjust therotation of lens 15-lp-as by electronically communicating signals tomotor 15-mtr, where motor 15-mtr can be any of a number of possiblemotors available in the market and preferably includes an interface foraccepting digital commands from processor 15-proc and converting theseinto motor movement signals, all as is well known in the art of motorcontrol systems. What is most important to see is that lens 15-2 reliesupon sensing the orientation of lens 15-2 and then calculatingappropriate adjustments to the rotation of lens 15-lp-as in order tomaintain proper alignment between the liner polarization within lens15-lp-as and the linear polarization angle of the incoming secretmessage rays A such that the rays A are substantially transmittedthrough the lens 15-2 for receiving by a viewer 2 s.

Referring next to FIG. 5C, there is shown variation magnifying glass15-3, comprising magnifying glass 15-2 that has been further adapted toomit motor 15-mtr and include additional LC Modulator layer 15-md. Withrespect to the linear polarizer within lens 15-lp-as-md, modulator 15-mdis placed in between the surface 21-rsf being viewed and the linearpolarizer layer, and with respect to the viewer 2 s, the linearpolarizer is in between the viewer 2 s and the modulator 15-md. As iswell-known in the art of LCD displays, the purpose of the modulator isto twist the rays of incoming light, effectively rotating the linearangle of polarization of the incoming rays by up to 90 degrees. This isoften referred to as a light valve, where if incoming rays, for examplevertically polarized, are left un-rotated (i.e. value shut off) prior toentering a second horizontal polarizer, they will be substantiallyblocked. If these same incoming vertically polarized rays are rotated by90 degrees (i.e. value fully open,) therefore becoming horizontallypolarized, they will be substantially transmitted. As is well known,varying degrees of transmission are possible based upon the amount ofrotating by the light value/modulator, such as modulator 15-md. In thealternate embodiment of magnifying glass 15-3, the modulator 15-mdreceives electronic signals from processor 15-proc that uniformly directthe modulator 15-md to twist all rays (A or B) being reflected bysurface 21-rsf and entering lens 15-lp-as-md according to an amountsufficient to offset the determined amount of X-Y plane rotation of themagnifying glass 15-3. Hence, rather than mechanically rotating theentire lens 15-lp-as as shown in FIG. 5B using a motor, the lens15-lp-as-md is allowed to rotate while the modulator 15-md insteadrotates the incoming light rays, thereby achieving the same goal whichis to allow incoming secret message rays A to be analyzed as intended bythe linear polarizer in lens 15-lp-as-md, such that the secret messageimage A is substantially viewable by gamer 2 s looking through glass15-3 while the complimentary image B is substantially not viewable,regardless of the orientation of magnifying glass 15-3 with respect tothe secret message A angle of polarization.

Referring next to FIG. 6, there is shown variation magnifying glass15-4, comprising magnifying glass 15-3 that has been further adapted toinclude electronics 15-elc for controlling projector 15-lcd such as anLCD that emits augmenting image C towards angled transflective surface15-tf, where image C is then partially or substantially fully reflectedtowards viewer 2 s as it transmits through second lens 15-as. Thosefamiliar with technology generally referred to as a handheld or “pocket”TV will understand the purposes, functions and arrangements of projector15-lcd with respect to transflective surface 15-tf and viewer 2 s, asthis arrangement provides a means for allowing projector 15-lcd to emitan image C for viewing by gamer 2 s as if the image C was coming throughlens 15-lp-as-md, while also minimizing the impact on the shape and sizeof the magnifying glass. As will be well understood by those familiarwith this technology as well as augmented reality glasses and heads-updisplays, many variations are possible without departing from the scopeof the present invention, where any projection method including activematrix LCD is sufficient for the purposes of the present invention. Whatis most important to see is that an additional image C is provided foruse in magnifying glass 15-3, where the image C is generated by digitalinformation either stored within magnifying glass 15-3, or streamed toglass 15-3 over its internal wireless communications link 15-com (seeupcoming FIG. 7.)

Still referring to FIG. 6, transflective surface 15-tf can be a range ofmaterials including at least: 1) plastic, 2) glass, or 3) transflectiveLCD. As those familiar with Snell's law and the principals of therefraction and reflection of light will understand, there is a criticalangle of incidence, typically around 45°, at which the projected image Cwill be fully reflected off for example glass surface 15-tf towardsgamer 2 s. As is also well known, this angle can be altered to fit theform and structure of the magnifying glass 15-4 with the effect ofreducing from full to partial reflection. In the case of partialreflection, it is further desirable that interior was 15-wal surroundingsurface 15-tf be coated or painted for increased light absorption (e.g.using a black color,) thus reducing the unwanted effects of reflectionswithin the interior cavity of magnifying glass 15-4. Alternatively,surface 15-tf can be constructed using a transflective LCD, in whichcase electronics 15-elc can emit control signals that causetransflective LCD surface 15-tf to reflect substantially all of theimage C acting similar to a mirrored surface. Using a glass surface15-tf further allows for the simultaneous transmission of secret image Athrough surface 15-tf directly into the view of gamer 2 s, thus allowingimages A and C to simultaneously received by gamer 2 s, and towards thisend image C can be considered as augmenting the secret message A. Usingtransflective LCD surface 15-tf, electronics 15-elc can alternate thetransflective LCD between a reflective vs. transmissive at a high framerate, e.g. 30 to 60 fps, coordinated with the output of image C usingprojector 15-lcd. As will be well understood by those familiar withhuman visual perception, at a sufficient frame rate, gamer 2 s willperceive image C as being mixed with image A and indistinguishable fromthe approach of using a glass surface 15-tf rather than a transflectivesurface 15-tf.

Still referring to FIG. 6, rather than having projected image C augmentsecret image A, it is further anticipated that electronics 15-elc orsimilar (see the teachings for 15-ui in upcoming FIG. 7) willcontrollably set the active shutter in lens 15-lp-as-md to opaque whilesimultaneously emitting image(s) C through projector 15-lcd. In thisexample use, gamer 2 s is automatically switched from viewing eitheronly secret image A, or combined image A and C, to viewing only image C.As the careful reader will see, using the disclosed arrangement of partsor their equivalents, many interesting effects are possible, some ofwhich have been described, others of which will be obvious to thoseskilled in the necessary arts, and therefore these teachings related tothe projection of image C for augmenting secret image A should beconsidered as exemplary, rather than limitations of the presentinvention. And finally, the present invention anticipates that imagescaptured by back facing camera 15-cam-b that are meant to capture thesecret image A as currently being viewed by gamer 2 s are then alsotransmitted via magnifying glass 15 wireless communications (see 15-comin upcoming FIG. 7) to be received by the interactive gaming system 48.

As will be well understood from a careful reading of the presentinvention, game access point 30 alone or in combination with gamingsystem 48 is responsible for determining and transmitting controlsignals to magnifying glass 15 for causing electronics 15-elc to directprojector 15-lcd to emit image C for visually combining with image A,where the timing of the emission of image C is coordinated to augmentthe view of gamer 2 s through magnifying glass 15-4, and where imagescaptured from back facing camera 15-cam-b are analyzed by any one of, orany combination of electronics 15-elc contained with magnifying glass15-4, access point 30 or gaming system 48, in order to determine thecurrent view of gamer 2 s. Access point 30 and or gaming system 48 isfurther capable of receiving images captured by back facing camera15-cam-b and then applying a digital image C to the captured imagerepresentative of the gamer 2's view, thus forming an augmented capturedimage substantially similar to what gamer 2 s would have viewed at thetime the image was captured by camera 15-cam-b.

Referring next to FIG. 7, there is shown a functional block diagram offour of the major components of the presently taught game theater 100including: 1) game access point 30, 2) secret message output device 22,3) secret message magnifying glass 15, and 4) interactive gaming system48. Each of four major components includes a set of key sub-componentsto be described forthwith. It is important to understand that thepresent figure describes overall behavior and functionality that ispreferably encapsulated in software/hardware sub-components roughlyequivalent to those herein taught. However, as those familiar withsoftware and hardware system architectures will understand, multiplealternative configurations are possible where the actual internalsub-components of each of the for major components 30, 22, 15 and 48 areimplemented differently than herein shown while substantially providingthe same functional behaviors for the interaction between the majorcomponents. As will also be understood, all the components generallyrequire computing and communication apparatus. Unless specificallymentioned, additional necessary hardware apparatus is well-known andunderstood in the marketplace, for which multiple options are available,and therefor for clarity are not further taught herein.

In general, a game access point 30 using gamer/device detection 30-detis capable of at least detecting the presence or one or more gamers 2 salong with zero or more mobile gaming devices 60 being carried by thegamer 2 s, where the gamer 2 s's detected presence includes some uniqueidentifier (i.e. gamer ID) that may or may not be related to that gamer2 s's personal identity (for example the ID could be registered to afictitious gamer avatar, rather than the actual gamer 2 s's real name.)A game access point 30 also is in communications via 30-com with theinteractive gaming system 48, either directly or working through theguest tracking system 46 (see FIG. 2) under the supervision of thedestination 4-a or 4-b, such as included in the destination's globaleco-system 40. Therefore, the main responsibility of the game accesspoints 30 is to detect gamers 2 s and their associated devices 60 forcontinuous updating of the gaming system 48, where the game algorithmsbeing implemented on the gaming system 48 alter the game activitiesbased at least in part upon the detected gamer 2 s and device 60information with respect to an access point 30. It is further preferredthat at least some of the game access points 30 include means for veryaccurately tracking the movements and gestures of either the gamer 2 sor a mobile device 60 being used by a gamer 2 s. In the prior co-pendingapplication, the present inventor provided significant specificationrelated to the camera-based object tracking system embedded withinmirror/display 20 (see especially FIG. 2A of co-pending U.S.Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 15/975,236 INTERACTIVE OBJECTTRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM,) where thismirror/display 20 was functioning as a game access point 30 as itdetected the presence of the gamer 2 s, tracked the movements of thegamer's 2 s game toy, i.e. the wizard's wand shown as article 12, andthen communicated this information to both a local interactive gamingsystem 36 and the global interactive gaming system 48. The trackedmovements of article 12 where considered to be interpretable as commandsbeing issued by gamer 2 s. As will be well understood by a carefulreading of the present and co-pending applications, while a game accesspoint 30 might comprise additional sub-components, including a secretmessage output device 22 or an actuated device 50, it minimallycomprises gamer/device detection 30-det and system communications30-com, and alternately also comprises object tracking 30-ot.

Still referring to FIG. 7, in general secret message output device 22comprises a sub-component for outputting a public image viewable to thenaked eye, wherein a secret message A is hidden and can only beperceived by a gamer 2 s using a secret message imaging device such aseye glasses 14 or magnifying glass 15. The co-pending application for anINTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEMtaught mirror/display 20 with several alternatives for outputting suchpublic images with secret messages A. The present invention furtherteaches projection system 22 comprising projector(s) 21-p for projectingsecret message image A and complimentary image B off of a reflectivesurface 21-rsf, where a gamer 2 s using the same eye glasses 14 ormagnifying glass 15 as used to see secret messages A output bymirror/display 20 would then also perceive secret messages A beingoutput by projection system 21-p. Regardless of the underlying imageoutput technology, e.g. display 20 or projector 21-p, secret messageoutput device 22 preferably includes sufficient computing system forimplementing both image A processing 22-imgA and image B processing22-imgB. What is important to understand is that preferably a secretmessage output device 22 is in communications with the interactivegaming system 48 via a game access point 30, such that the game accesspoint 30 first detects the gamer 2 s in the proximity of the outputdevice 22, and then communicates with gaming system 48 in order toreceive secret message instructions or content.

As will be well understood by those familiar with data transfer overcommunications systems, especially remote systems such as gamingplatform 10 when communicating to physical destinations 4-a and 4-b,there are issues related to data latency that can be noticeable forexample to the gamer 2 s when viewing the output secret message A. Oneway to minimize latency is to minimize data transfer, this includeseither pre-storing secret messages A, complimentary images B, or desiredfinal public images on the secret message output device 22. However, ifthe secret messages A are not pre-known and must be calculated, it isdesirable that the gaming system 48 transfer a minimum of data to outputdevice 22 for processing into a viewable secret message A by processingsub-component 22-imgA. Ultimately, after secret message A is determined,created or otherwise generated it is also necessary to generate either acomplimentary image B (i.e. for projection device 21-p) or a publicimage that encodes the secret message (i.e. for mirror/display 20,)where this second generation is the responsibility of processingsub-component 22-imgB. Again, while it is possible to generate bothimages A, B and the public image on the interactive gaming system 48 forcommunicating through the game access point 30 to the output device 22,it is preferred that a majority if not all of this generation is donelocal to device 22, wherein it is further possible that sub-components22-imgA and 22-imgB be a part of game access point 30 rather than device22. While many configurations are possible, once images A, B and thepublic image are determined, created or otherwise generated, they areoutput by device 22 for viewing.

Still referring to FIG. 7, in general secret message viewing device 15comprises a multiplicity of sub-components, most importantly including alens for analyzing the public image to reveal the secret message A, allas prior taught herein as well as the co-pending U.S. Non-Provisionalapplication Ser. No. 15/975,236 entitled INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKINGMIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM. The analyzer is typically apolarizer film providing either linear or circular polarization, and asuch is not an electronic device that needs controlling. All of thesub-components depicted in FIG. 7 for device 15 are related to functionsthat are electronically variable. Especially as taught in the co-pendingapplication in relation to eye glasses 14, it is useful to at leastinclude an LCD active shutter over the polarizer film for constructingmagnifying glass 15. LCD active shutters are well known, and as directedby active shutter control 15-asc provide at least two beneficialfunctions: 1) to make the entire surface of lens 15-lp-as or 15-lp-as-md(see FIGS. 5A, 5B and 5C) either opaque or transmissive insynchronization with the output of secret messages A by output device22, thus allowing some secret message A viewing devices 15 and 14 totransmit secret messages to gamer 2 s, while other devices 15 and 14simultaneously block these same messages A, and 2) to increase theopacity of some select portion (i.e. some pixels of the LCD activeshutter) of the surface of lens 15-lp-as or 15-lp-as-md, therebyblocking the backlighting coming through the lens 15-lp-as or15-lp-as-md to the gamer 2 s resulting in for example an image or sometext (see upcoming FIGS. 8C, 9A, 9C, 9E, 9E and 14) where this can beconsidered the output portion of a typical screen based user interface(UI.)

Still referring to FIG. 7, as will be well understood by those familiarwith touch screen technology, it is possible to further adapt eitherlens system 15-lp-as or 15-lp-as-md to include a touch sensor, wherebythe resulting lens not only provides UI output but also serves toreceive input from the gamer 2 s in the form of touch detection signals.As such, it is preferably that device 15 include user interfacesub-component 15-ui that is dedicated to managing both the input andoutput of the UI as enabled by lens system 15-lp-as or 15-lp-as-mdpreferably further adapted to include touch sensing means. As depictedin FIG. 3, device 15 further includes additional mechanical based userinput means such as button(s) 15-btn. As will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art of toys and user input, many solutions are possiblefor accepting input from a gamer 2 s other than a touch screen lens or abutton, any of which are possible for use with device 15. As such, theUI elements depicted in the present invention related to magnifyingglass 15 and in the co-pending invention related to eye glasses 14should be considered as exemplary rather than as limitations. It ispossible that some of the teachings as related to eye glasses 14, suchas heptic feedback, also be incorporated into magnifying glass 15.Likewise, the buttons envisioned for device 15 could be adapted todevice 14. What is most important is that the gamer 2 s has ability toexchange information with the gaming system 48 using some UI elements oneither device 14, 15 or any of their anticipated alternates.

The present invention additionally prefers that magnifying glass 15include at least a back facing camera 15-cam-b (see FIG. 6) forcapturing images of the view through glass 15 substantially as seen bygamer 2 s. As will be well understood by those familiar with cameratechnology, it is possible to place the same lens materials as 15-lp-asor 15-lp-as-md over back facing camera 15, such that camera 15 captureimages that include secret messages A. Several uses for the capturing ofthese images will be detailed in the remainder of the presentapplication. It is also preferable that magnifying glass 15 include afront facing camera 15-cam-f for capturing images of the gamer 2 s. Whenincluding back facing camera 15-cam-b or front facing camera 15-cam-f,magnifying glass 15 preferably also includes camera managementsub-component 15-cm for which many options are well-known in the art andpossible. What is minimally necessary is that some computing element isavailable for directing the image capture timing and data transfer ofeither of camera 15-cam-b and 15-cam-f. What is further desirable isthat sub-component 15-cm include some memory and sufficient processingfor preforming image processing, for example classifying or identifyingobjects within the images being captured by cameras 15-cam-b and15-cam-f. As will be well-known in the art, local processing on thedevice 15 or 14 is advantageous but then also adds to the cost and powerrequirement of device 15 or 14, and as such either some or all of thisdesirable image analysis processing can be moved instead to either gameaccess point 30 and/or interactive gaming system 48. What is mostdesirable is that secret message imaging devices 15 and 14 at leastinclude camera sufficient for capturing images of what the gamer 2 s isseeing with respect to both their natural ambient view as well as anysecret messages A seen while viewing a secret message output device 22.What is further desirable and to be further discussed herein, is thatthese same images are then usable at least in part as information bygaming system 48 for altering the ongoing game as experienced by gamer 2s.

Still referring to FIG. 7, magnifying glass 15 is preferably furtheradapted to include led's 15-led. Similar to cameras 15-cam-b and15-cam-f, these can be either front facing or back facing. When frontfacing, the LED's 15-led are meant primarily as indicators for the gamer2 s, and as such are considered to be a part of the user interface ofmagnifying glass 15, where a similar set of UI LEDs where taught in theco-pending application Ser. No. 15/975,236 in relation to eye glasses14. For instance, these LEDs could be caused to blink or stay steadybased upon electronic signals output by user interface 15-UI in responseto instructions received by interactive gaming system 48 and/or gameaccess point 30. However, within the present application the back facingLEDs 15-led are anticipated to output a non-visible light such as UV inorder to cause invisible ink to fluoresce thus revealing an invisiblemessage to the gamer 2 s as they look through magnifying glass 15 (seeespecially upcoming FIGS. 8b and 10E.) These back facing led'spreferably receive electronic signals from the illumination control15-ic sub-component that works in coordination with camera management15-cm. As will be well understood by those familiar with camera systemsand electronics, camera management 15-cm could also be adapted to outputelectronic signals for causing the back facing LEDs 15-led to turn onand off. Regardless of the implementation, as these and other variationsare well-known and possible, it is important to see that at times theback facing LEDs 15-led will illuminate invisible ink for the gamer 2 sto view, even though images may or may not also be captured by backfacing camera 15-cam-b.

Still referring to FIG. 7, magnifying glass 15 preferably includes anyof available wireless technologies including Bluetooth or wi-fi, forexample which the co-pending application specified regarding eye glasses14. It is also important to note that the choice of wireless technologyalso effects at least game access points 30 which communicate withmobile gaming devices 60 such as magnifying glass 15 and eye glasses 14.As such, the choice for communications 15-com preferably supportsdetection of secret messaging devices 15 and 14 by gamer/devicedetection 30-det sub-component of access points 30, all as priordiscussed. Also, as prior taught in the co-pending application Ser. No.15/975,236 in relation to eye glasses 14, it is preferred thatcommunications 15-com include some information during communicationuniquely identifying the magnifying glass 15 from all other mobilegaming devices 60, where the many uses of such unique ID information arewell known to those familiar with information systems and has been priordiscussed in the co-pending application. And finally, to support theelectronics, magnifying glass 15 is further adapted to include powermanagement 15-pm for both providing power to all electronic elementswithin glass 15 and for preferably supporting recharging of power, forexample using any of the wireless power transfer technologies nowbecoming available with portable devices such as smart phones. What ismost important is the device 15 includes a power source, such as abattery that may be exchanged or recharged, and that this power ismanaged as it is supplied to all electronic components within device 15,all as will be well understood by those skilled in the art ofelectronics and especially portable electronics.

Still referring to FIG. 7, in general interactive gaming system 48comprises a multiplicity of sub-components for receiving gamer 2 sinput, processing game rules at least in part using the gamer input, andproviding output to gamers 2 s at least using any of secret messageoutput devices 22, actuated devices 50 or mobile gaming devices 60, andwhere preferably the gamer input and gaming system output arecommunicated from system 48 through communications sub-component 48-comto game access points 30 for further transmission to devices 22, 50 and60. As will be well understood by those familiar with computer systemcommunications, many options and technologies are available for use incommunications sub-component 48-com and as such are not the focus of thepresent invention. What is most important to understand is that thecommunications architecture support data security over a wide areanetwork that communicates between a local area network running at thedestination for communications between the multiplicity of game accesspoints 30 and the remote gaming platform 10 that is preferablyimplemented as a cloud-based system. It is also possible to implement anarchitecture where each game access point 30 is treated as an IoT(internet of things) networked device comprising sufficient embeddedelectronics, software and network connectivity to enable the accesspoint 30 to exchange data with interactive gaming system 48 runningeither locally, e.g. within the physical destination's global eco-system40, or remotely, e.g. on a cloud computing service within the gamingplatform 10. What is most important is that gaming system 48 be able toelectronically exchange information with game access points 30, secretmessage devices 22, actuated devices 50 and mobile gaming devices 60.

Still referring to FIG. 7, gaming system 48 preferably includes animage/clue processing 48-icp sub-component for initially processinginputs received from gamer 2 s, where these inputs vary from selectionsmade through some UI interface or images captured especially of thescene and/or secret message currently being viewed by the gamer 2 sthrough magnifying glass 15 or eye glasses 14. Clue processing 48-icp ispreferably capable of receiving and appropriately processing all inputs,thus being able to recognize identification information associated withthe received input, where the identification information preferableincludes unique ids for the gamer 2 s, the game access point 30 as wellas at least the mobile gaming device 60 the provided the input. Clueprocessing 48-icp preferably determines the type of input and when thisinput is an image provides this image to object classification andidentification sub-component 48-oci for additional processing using anyof well-known and emerging image processing techniques, especiallyincluding the use of deep neural nets that have proven to besignificantly efficient and accurate for at least classifying objectsfound within an image. The present inventor notes that by identifyingthe ID of the game access point 30 through which the original inputimage was received, it is possible to reasonably limit the total numberof potential objects of which the gamer 2 s might have captured animage, where this information regarding the limited number of potentialobjects is then used at least in part by object classification andidentification sub-component 48-oci when processing the image. What ismost important is that gamer 2 s is able to capture images with orwithout secret messages, where these images include one or more objects,and where the objects are generally classifiable (e.g. the object is afish,) or they are uniquely identifiable (e.g. the object is a QR codeon a printed receipt, or the face of another gamer 2 s.) When capturingimages that include secret messages, it is anticipated that the exactsecret message is pre-known by the gaming system 48 since system 48 wasultimately responsible for directing the output of the secret message tothe gamer 2 s as prior discussed, and therefore object classificationand identification 48-oci does not need to process the captured image inorder that image/clue processing 48-icp be notified regarding whatsecret message is contained within a particular captured image. What ismost important to understand is that the responsibility of objectclassification and identification 48-oci is to determine a sufficientamount of object related information from an image captured by a gamer 2s so as to provide this object related information back to theimage/clue processing sub-component 48-icp for further processing.

Still referring to FIG. 7, image/clue processing 48-icp works withobject classification and identification 48-oci to translate any inputfrom a gamer 2 s into an actionable response, where an actionableresponse is any digital information that is interpretable by gameprocessing 48-gp as either: 1) a gamer 2 s answer to a gaming system 48posed question, 2) a gamer 2 s question requesting a gaming system 48answer, and 3) a gamer movement for which any of a secret messagedevices 22 or actuated device 50 is to have a responsive change ormovement. The present application will teach specific examples of thisQ&A exchange, where the examples include a gamer 2 s responding to agaming system 48 posed riddle, presented e.g. via the active shutter LCDon the magnifying glass 15, where the gamer 2's response includes takinga picture of fish, where the fish are classifiable by objectclassification and identification sub-component 48-oci as an answer tothe gaming system 48 question (see FIG. 8C.) Another example taughtherein is of a gamer 2 s capturing an image at a specific game accesspoint 30, or otherwise an image of an object with a location that ispre-known to the interactive gaming system 48 with respect to thelocations of the game access point(s) 30, where the captured image isinterpreted to be indicative of the gamer 2 s's current location withina physical destination 4-a or 4-b, and that the implied gamer questionis “how do I get from where I am now to my next game access point?” (SeeFIGS. 9A, 9B, 9C, 9D and 9E.)

As will be discussed, the processing of the image directly, and or thereceiving of an ID and related information from the game access point 30through which the captured image was transmitted, are potentialinformation usable by game processing 48-gp to provide an answer to thegamer's location question. In still yet another example herein taught agamer 2 s moves their game toy sword 62-swd (see FIG. 12) as they view asecret message that is an animated video of an orc. These sword 62-swdmovements are preferably captured by an object tracking system 30-otincluded within the game access point 30 that is controlling the secretmessage output device 22 outputting the orc video to the gamer 2 s. Thecaptured movement are determined by object tracking 30-ot and output inany form of 2D or 3D coordinates such that they are usable at least inpart for causing the images of the orc to move accordingly, where thedetermination of the changes to the output orc images is preferably madelocally by image A 22-imgA and image B 22-imgB processing, but may alsobe made by a component such as image A-B determination operating on theassociated access point 30 or the gaming system 48 (as depicted,) all aswill be well understood by those familiar with software and hardwaresystems architecture.

Referring next to FIGS. 8A and 8B, there is shown an anticipated use ofthe magnifying glass 15 as it is being held by a gamer 2 s to lookthrough at a secret message book 13. In FIG. 8A, gamer 2 s holds themagnifying glass 15 within some distance of book 13 such that lookingthrough lens 15-lp the gamer 2 s can see a portion of book 13, whereuponno markings or writing is visually apparent. Also shown is theapproximate field-of-view of back facing camera 15-cam-b that isdirectable to capture an image 15-img of what the gamer 2 s is lookingat though lens 15-lp. In FIG. 8B, using any of available UI inputapparatus such as button(s) 15-btn the gamer 2 s indicates that the leds15-led should be turned on to emit a non-visible energy such asultra-violet light, where the non-visible energy 15-uv then interactswith invisible ink already placed upon book 13 such that the gamer 2 snow sees markings or writing 13-ink on book 13 where prior to theemission of the non-visible energy 15-uv the markings or writings 13-inkwere substantially not visually apparent, and where the available UIinput apparatus used by gamer 2 s to indicate that such non-visibleenergy should be emitted is any of a multiplicity of possible means asprior described in relation to the user interface 15-ui of imaging glass15, including a button(s) 15-btn depicted. Also as prior taught, thegamer 2 s may use a UI input on magnifying glass 15 to indicate that animage 15-img should be captured by camera 15-cam-b of the view of thebook 13 as currently being seen by gamer 2 s, thus including the nowvisible markings or writing, where this image is then transmittedthrough communication means such as 15-com and 30-com to image/clueprocessing 48-icp to be analyzed by object classification andidentification sub-component 48-oci for providing information to gameprocessing 48-gp indicative of the gamer 2 s's actionable response.

Referring next to FIG. 8C, there is shown an anticipated use of themagnifying glass 15 as it is being held by a gamer 2 s to look throughat either a picture of fish or an actual fish tank. Also shown on lens15-lp-as is game system 48 question, specifically the text: “Alivewithout breath, As cold as death, Never thirsty, ever drinking, All inmail, never clinking.” that was communicated to glass 15 by gameprocessing 48-gp through communications means 48-com, to game accesspoint 30 communications means 30-com, and then to magnifying glasscommunication 15-com as a part of an on-going game. As those familiarwith communication systems will understand, there are variousalternative communication paths include directly from gaming system48-com to magnifying glass 15-com, where all paths are considered assufficient for the purposes of the present invention 100. In response tothe received question, gamer 2 s then uses magnifying glass 15 to viewsome portion of a scene that includes an object which the gamer 2 sbelieves to be an answer to the question. In FIG. 8C, the gamer 2 s isshown to be looking through lens 15-lp-as at either a picture of fish oran actual fish tank, where the gamer 2 s then uses any of available UIinput apparatus, such as button(s) 15-btn, to indicate that camera15-cam-b should capture an image 15-img of what the gamer 2 s iscurrently viewing as the gamer 2 s looks through lens 15-lp-as. Thisimage 15-img as depicted includes one or more fish and is transmittedthrough communication means such as 15-com, 30-com and 48-com toimage/clue processing 48-icp to be analyzed by object classification andidentification 48-oci providing information to game processing 48-gpindicative of the gamer 2 s's actionable response.

With respect to FIGS. 8A, 8B and 8C, the uses depicted include: 1)causing invisible ink to be made visible for viewing through magnifyingglass 15, and 2) capturing images 15-img representative of the viewthrough magnifying glass 15 for analysis and interpretation by theinteractive gaming system 48 as a gamer 2 s actionable response. As willbe appreciated by those skilled in the art of gaming systems, these twofeatures alone present significant possibilities and can be used in avirtually limitless number of variations including with different gameaccess points 30, different clues, questions, challenges, riddles,assignments, tasks, missions, etc. and different presentations of secretmessages A using any of the display 20 or projector 21 based apparatusand methods taught by the present inventor herein or in any of the priorbase or related co-pending applications. As will also be wellunderstood, invisible ink that is made visible by exposure tonon-visible light is well known and there are many alternatives, all ofwhich are acceptable and anticipated for the uses of the presentmagnifying glass 15 and interactive gaming system 48.

Referring next to FIG. 9A, as those familiar with especially largedestinations 4-a or 4-b will understand, when game theater 100comprising a large multiplicity of game access points 30 is added to alarger destination 4-a or 4-b, it is a very important function to helpgamers 2 s find either an access point 30 the interactive game system 48is summoning the gamer 2 s to, or to find an access point 30 the gamer 2s desires to interact with. The present figure shows the use of any oneof magnifying glasses 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 as a means for directinga gamer to a next game access point 30 in conjunction with a portablemap 18 that is typically found for example at a theme park. It is firstnoted that any of magnifying glasses 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 arecapable of creating an augmented image on magnifying glass lens 15-l,for example using an active shutter to selectively turn some pixels onlens 15-l to be partially or substantially opaque, where the ambientlight reflecting off map 18 and coming through lens 15-l is then blockedhaving the effect of creating monochromatic images on lens 15-l thataugment map 18, all as will be well understood by those familiar withLCD displays. Magnifying glass 15-4 has the additional ability toproject a color or monochromatic image C via projector 15-lcd (see FIG.6) for augmenting the view of lens 15-l, where this view can betransparent to the background or opaque, depending then upon thecontrolled opaque vs. transparent setting of the active shutter in lens15-lp-as. What is important to see is that magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2,15-3 or 15-4 is capable of outputting augmenting graphics on lens 15-lfor indicating a path of a gamer 2 s in visual coordination with map 18.

Still referring to FIG. 9A, gamer 2 s carrying magnifying glass 15-1,15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 that includes communications 15-com comes into a nearproximity of a game access point 30-s that for example is implemented asa street sign “Diagon Alley.” As with all game access points 30, streetsign access point 30-s preferably includes means for detecting the nearproximity of any one or more gamers 2 s by detecting any one or more oftheir associated mobile game devices 60, such as magnifying glass 15-1,15-2, 15-3 or 15-4. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the artsof wi-fi local positioning systems, RFID local positioning systems, aswell as global positioning systems, many technologies are available forembedding in both game access points 30 and mobile game devices 60, allas prior discussed. There is no requirement that all access points 30and all mobile devices 60 implement the same technology. What isimportant, is that there is at least some way of determining that aparticular gamer 2 s has entered into or come within a certain proximityof a game access point 30, and in regards to the present figure gameaccess point 30-s.

Prior co-pending U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 16/055,078entitled THEME PARK GAMIFICATION, GUEST TRACKING AND ACCESS CONTROLSYSTEM taught a smart ticket 2 that preferably included extended rangereadable tracking number, for example implemented using passive UHF RFIDthat is detectable at ranges of 3 to over 45 feet based upon the exacttechnology chosen. Passive RFID is preferred as it supported smaller andless expensive tags that for example could even be implemented asprinted RFID embedded within an electronic ticket 2 c (see the priorco-pending application FIGS. 1 and 2.) The co-pending application taughtembedding the passive RFID in several wearable configurationsincluding: 1) an electronic ticket 2 c e.g. held in a lanyard, 2)extendable range data passive RFID configured into a wristband (similarto the Disney Magic band that implements active RFID,) or 3) extendablerange data passive RFID configured into an anklet 16 (similar to passivechips worn on sneakers during road races.) The co-pending patent alsotaught that this RFID included a unique ID for identifying at least aunique “avatar identity” that the gamer 2 s associates with themselves(and therefore the game system 48 never receives or tracks personalidentity information of the gamer 2 s,) where the gamer 2 s using theirsmart phone and a special game/“venue app” could then choose to provideadditional personal information. What is most important to understand isthat regardless of the mobile gaming device 60 or the type of electronicticket 2 c implementation, the present and co-pending applicationsspecify multiple apparatus and methods for at least identifying a uniqueavatar representing a unique gamer 2 s as that gamer enters theproximity, remains within, or exits the proximity of a game access point30 such as 30-s, where also using a combination of technologies it wastaught that the avatar identity could be tracked down to an individualride seat of a given theme park ride, thus making that individual rideseat the equivalent of a game access point 30.

Still referring to FIG. 9A, after street sign 30-s (and generally anygame access point 30) detects the proximity of the gamer 2 s using anymeans herein described or prior taught in any of the co-pendingapplications, or any other means available in the marketplace, sign 30-spreferably communicates the gamer 2 s (or avatar) unique identity togaming system 48 along with a unique ID representing the specific accesspoint 30-s. System 48 then logs the identified gamer's 2 s (or avatars)identification information in association with the identified gameaccess point 30-s and determines the type of access point 30-s and inparticular what game functions may or may not be initiated for the gamer2 s based upon a multiplicity of datum, for example including but notlimited to: 1) the gamer's identity and current game state including anyof level, points, gear, time remaining, achievements, number of visitsto the particular access point, etc. information, 2) the gamer's generalpersona or type, e.g. they are a troll, wizard, detective, warden, etc.,3) any of the one or more mobile gaming devices 60 also detected aspresent at the same game access point 30 (such as 30-s) that was alreadydetermined as associated with the given detected gamer 2 s (seeespecially upcoming FIGS. 10D and 11,) 4) the access point 30's uniqueID or general type (for example street sign, game toy dispenser, virtualbooth, physical challenge, etc.), 5) the overall state of the gameincluding all gamer's 2 s, 6) local environment sensor information aswould be collected for example by local environment sensing system 32(see FIG. 2 as well as the prior related co-pending application,) or 7)game viewer/audience feedback datum.

Still referring to FIG. 9A, system 48 might determine that game accesspoint 30 is a mapping game access point 30-s where any gamer 2 s maystop to request directions to another game access point 30 that theyhave chosen or to which they are being summoned by system 48. In thismap output game access point 30-s use case, system 48 preferablycommunicates with uniquely identified magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3or 15-4 either directly or through access point 30-s. Regardless,magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 preferably receives a signalultimately from gaming system 48 to turn on its mapping graphic 15-map,for example displaying 15-map via any of the graphic output means priordescribed for lens 15-l including active shutter LCD overlaid onto lens15-lp-as or projector 15-lcd. As will be clear from a full reading ofthe present invention as well as the prior co-pending applicationentitled INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENTSYSTEM as it relates to eye glasses 14, other means are possible forcausing magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 to indicate to thegamer 2 s that a specific function such as “mapping” is now initiated,such as vibration (heptic) feedback or the flashing of LED lights15-led, where then it should be understood that eye glasses 14 are alsouseable by gamer 2 s for the herein taught mapping functionality inplace of magnifying glass 15. In the implementation taught in thepresent FIG. 9A, once notified, gamer 2 s preferably provides somepositive indication that they would like to use the mapping function,for example by pressing button(s) 15-btn, or by touching lens 15-l thatis further adapted to include touch input sensors, for which manywell-known solutions are available. Once gamer 2 s has preferablyconfirmed that a mapping mode should be turned on, or alternativelyimmediately initiated each time a magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or15-4 is detected in the proximity of a mapping access point like streetsign 30 s, glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 begins to automaticallycapture images 15-img for example at some frame rate between 10 to 30frames per second.

Still referring to FIG. 9A, gamer 2 s then holds their magnifying glass15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 so as to view their portable destination map18. As gamer 2 s looks through glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4, images15-img are being captured of some portion of map 18 and transmitted toobject classification and identification sub-component 48-oci, wheresub-component 48-oci may be executing on any one of, or any combinationof: magnifying glass 15 (or eye glasses 14,) game access point 30 orinteractive gaming system 48. Regardless of where images 15-img arebeing processed, those familiar with image processing will understandthat map 18 comprises pre-known information that may be associated withany of the captured images 15-img. Once associated, gaming system 48using the known identity of street sign 30 s preferably transmitsinformation to magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 to cause a “youare here” symbol 15-urh to be displayed on lens 15-l, essentiallyaugmenting the gamer 2 s's view of map 18. Based upon the orientation ofthe map with respect to magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4, aswill be well understood by those familiar with image processing, gamingsystem 48 then preferably transmits information to magnifying glass15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 to cause a “game location symbol” 15-loc to bedisplayed on lens 15-l, where the symbol 15-loc is an access point 30prior indicated by the gamer 2 s or an access point 30 selected by thegaming system 48.

Still referring to FIG. 9A, the present invention anticipates that maps18 are printed with invisible ink registration marks 18-irm, wheremagnifying glasses 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 emit non-visible energy forilluminating the registration marks 18-irm in synchronization withcapturing images 15-img. As those familiar with human visual perceptionwill understand, if the emission of non-visible energy occurs over ashort duration, for example 1/30^(th) of a second while the image 15-imgis being captured, the gamer 2 s is unlikely to perceive the illuminatedregistration marks 18-irm. As will be understood by those familiar withimage processing, including registration marks 18-irm is highly usefulas datum for the image processing tasks of recognizing the portion ofmap 18 captured by image 15-img as well as determining where on lens15-l to display the various augmenting graphics such as 15-urh and15-loc. The present invention also anticipates that the captured image15-img of the map remains stored within magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2,15-3 or 15-4 for a certain amount of time, or at least stored withinsystem 100, such that the image 15-img is available to the gamer 2 s forfuture reference, where the stored image 15-img is digitally altered toinclude any of the augmenting map symbols such as 18-urh and 18-loc. Andfinally, with respect to FIG. 9A, the present invention also anticipatesthat the map 18 is not a portable map, but rather a fixed map 18 ondisplay within the physical destination as is often found, whereotherwise the teachings of FIG. 9A remain substantially identical.

Referring next to FIG. 9B, there is shown a physical destination scene31 wherein a gamer 2 s (not shown) is standing and holding theirmagnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 (depicted as larger thanlife-size) in order to view an access point symbol 30-sym for example astreet sewer cap as depicted, or even the street sign such as 30-s.Unlike the anticipated fixed map 18, symbol 30-sym does not appear to bea map to the gamer 2 s but rather appears decretive and coordinates withthe destination's themes. Also shown are game access point communicationdevices 30-com 1, 30-com 2 and 30-com 3. What is important to see isthat an access point symbol 30-sym is a specific type of a destinationobject, where an image of the symbol 30-sym or object is pre-known tothe system 100 and where at least in the case of destination objectsused as access point symbols 30-sym the location of the symbol 30-sym isfixed and pre-known to the system 100 at least with respect to thepre-known locations of the game access points 30, such that byrecognizing the object/symbol 30-sym the system 100 effectively knowsthe location of the gamer 2 s and therefore, among other things, provide“mapping” directions to the gamer 2 s or in some way engage the gamer 2s.

Referring next to both FIGS. 9B and 9C, lens 15-l of magnifying glass15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 is shown as depicting a compass through its UIelements including either an active shutter 15-lp-as or projector15-lcd. Also depicted on lens 15-l for viewing by gamer 2 s are exampletext directions (“proceed north-east”) and game access point locationsymbol 15-loc. As will be well understood by those familiar withlocation based tracking systems and user interfaces, presenting the UIdepicting in FIG. 9C to a gamer 2 s requires information indicating: 1)at least a 2D description of the physical destination, 2) informationindicating where the gamer 2 s and their magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2,15-3 or 15-4 are located within this 2D description, and 3) informationrelated to the orientation of the magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or15-4 with respect to the 2D description. Based upon pre-knowledge of the2D description, it is not necessary to have additional information onthe bearings of north, south, east or west (for example from the earth'smagnetic field) as this bearing information is inherent to the 2Ddescription. As will be understood by those familiar smart phonetechnology, magnifying glasses 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 may be furtheradapted to include GPS technology as well as orientation sensors (seeFIG. 5,) thus providing all of the necessary information for generatingthe depicted UI. However, GPS does not work as well indoors, wherepreferably the mapping functions presently described remain available.Furthermore, GPS technology increases the cost and complexity of theglasses 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4.

While this GPS and related technology is anticipated by the presentinvention and therefore remains within its scope, in terms ofpositioning systems, the present invention prefers using a wi-fi localpositioning system (LPS) for example relying upon the multiplicity ofgame access point 30 communication devices 30-com, such as 30-com 1,30-com 2 and 30-com 3 depicted. Wi-fi local positioning systems are wellknown in the art, and for instance rely upon measuring the receivedsignal strength of a transmitting devices such as glasses 15-1, 15-2,15-3 or 15-4 in order to determine a distance between a given wi-fiaccess point such as 30-com 1, 30-com 2 and 30-com 3 and thetransmitting device. By using three or more access points, triangulationalgorithms can be executed for locating at least the 2D coordinates ofthe transmitting device. Other methods are also well known including:fingerprinting, angle of arrival and time-of-flight. With respect to thedepictions of FIG. 9C, both GPS or a land based LPS system is acceptablefor implementing the present invention.

Still referring to FIGS. 9B and 9C, rather than using either a GPS orLPS positioning system, the present inventor prefers using magnifyingglasses 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 (or eye glasses 14,) to capture andanalyze image 15-img of pre-known and fixed symbols such as 30-sym. Aswill be well understood by those familiar with destination design andlayout, it is possible to create any number of unique symbols that canbe placed throughout the destination 4-a, 4-b and calibrated to theknown destination 2D description. These symbols can share a common looksuch that a gamer 2 s learns quickly to recognize them as part of thegaming system for providing map information. Or, the symbols can behidden and only revealed to the gamer as a part of the game. Regardless,once an image 15-img is captured of a symbol 30-sym, it is possible tomatch the symbol and its captured orientation to the set of all knownsymbols for the destination. Furthermore, if the symbol ispre-associated with a game access point 30, such as 30-s, then the ID ofthe access point 30-s is usable for automatically selecting thepre-known image of the symbol for comparison to the captured image15-img. As will be well understood by those familiar with imageprocessing systems, once the pre-known image is compared to the capturedimage 15-img, it is possible to both locate the gamer 2 s and todetermine the orientation of the magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or15-4 with respect to the symbol 30-sym which itself is pre-related tothe 2D destination description. Using this determined location andorientation, there is sufficient information for presenting the UI asshown in FIG. 9C on lens 15-l.

Referring next to FIGS. 9B and 9D, using the same determined locationand orientation of magnifying glass 15-1, 15-2, 15-3 or 15-4 withrespect the physical destination, regardless of the technique such asGPS, LPS or image processing, it is possible to present another userinterface as depicted on lens 15-l in FIG. 9D. In this alternativegraphic display, some form of coloration is used to indicate to thegamer 2 s that they are getting “closer” (e.g. using the color red tomean “warmer”) or that they are getting “farther” (e.g. using the colorblue to mean “cooler”) with respect to the desired game access point 30they are seeking or being directed to. (The present invention alsoanticipates that any of these mapping UIs such as depicted in FIG. 9Dmay be used to direct the gamer 2 s to moving targets such as adestination personnel including a themed character associated with thedestination 4-a, 4-b, or another gamer 2 s, rather than just to fixedtargets such as a game access point 30, where game access points 30themselves could also be moving,) where for example at least the currentlocation of a destination personnel can be tracked using either of GPSor LPS. The “warmer”/“cooler” interfaces matches the well-knownchildren's game and is useful for increasing the difficulty of findingthe moving target.

Referring next to 9 e, another anticipated mapping UI is shown where theview of symbol 30-sym is registered and graphically augmented toindicate the location of a target such as game access point 30, wherethe registration of the image 15-img as well as subsequent placement ofaugmenting symbols such as 15-loc are exactly similar to theconsiderations with respect to a fixed or portable map 18 as discussedin relation to FIG. 9A.

Referring next to FIG. 10A, there is shown a gamer 2 s with variouswearables sufficient for identifying either the gamer 2 s's personatype, avatar ID or even personal ID, were persona type represents a gamecharacter role as selected by gamer 2 s such as a wizard, elf, spy,driver, etc., where the avatar ID is a unique identifier representativeof the gamer's unique avatar such as wizard 945, or spy 1208, and whereoptionally associated with the avatar ID there is also associatedpersonal identification information about gamer 2 s such as their actualname, destination ticket number, age, sex, etc. As will be wellunderstood by those familiar gaming systems, it is necessary that agamer has a unique identity in order to accumulate game status such aspoints, gear, mastery levels, etc., such as an avatar ID, however it isalso desirable that a gamer 2 s be able to compete in a public gamingsystem without needing to provide personal information such as theiractual name, destination ticket number, age, sex, etc. In the priorco-pending application, apparatus and methods were taught for allowingthe purchaser of a destination access ticket to provide personalinformation as required for the purchase, but then to receive a uniquetracking number from the destination 4-b for use within the destination4-b that was not associated with their personal information, thus thetracking number that was electronically embedded into an RFID worn bythe purchaser was trackable throughout the destination 4-b while it wasnot then also possible to know the actual identity of the purchaser byknowing the tracking number. Such an ID is herein referred to as anavatar ID. Various wearables were taught including RFID anklet 16, RFIDwristband 16-wb, and electronic ticket 2 c, where the RFID in eachwearable was preferably passive and created from lower cost printedelectronics, although existing apparatus and methods such as DisneyWorld's Magic Band where also discussed, where the Magic Band usesactive RFID and it is considered limited but suitable for the purposesof the present invention and therefore falls within the scope of thepresent teachings. Also shown is a destination sales point persona typesticker 4-stk that is made available to a gamer 2 s or destination guestpreferably as they enter a destination sales point 4-sp, where thepersona type sticker 4-stk includes a unique symbol representative ofany of the persona types associated with the gaming system 48, forexample wizard, elf, spy, driver, etc.

Still referring to FIG. 10A, also depicted are two well-known detectiondata sets including exciter field 20-ef and camera image 55-img, wherean exciter field 20-ef is emitted and processed by a wireless readerthat is well-known in the art for remotely detecting the presence of apassive RFID, and where camera image 55-img is captured by camera 55 andthen analyzed by any of a number of image processing apparatus andmethods. What is most important to see is that the present inventionsupports identifying at least the avatar ID using any number of exciterfields 20-ef for example located at chokepoints where one or moregamer's 2 s are expected to pass by, where the gamer 2 s can wear theRFID in any number of forms at least including in an electronic ticket 2s, an anklet 16 or a wristband 16-wb, where the prior co-pendingapplication showed the many benefits of using an anklet 16. It isfurther important to see that the present invention additionallysupports using image processing including facial recognition of gamer 2s or facial-body recognition of gamer 2 s, where in the prior co-pendingapplication the combined use of RFID and image processing was specified,for example where the unique avatar ID of gamer 2 s is first detected asthe gamer 2 s proceeds through an exciter field 20-ef that detects anyof RFID wearables including 16, 16-wb or 2 c after which the systemrecalls facial image or facial-body image data associated with theunique ID in order to confirm the gamer 2 s (or their avatar,) all asprior taught. As prior taught in the co-pending application, thecombination of RFID and camera detection offered some unique advantagesfor tracking the gamer 2 s (or their avatar.)

Referring now to FIG. 10B, there is shown the foot of a gamer 2 swearing RFID anklet 16 (not to scale) as the gamer 2 s proceeds into adestination sales point 4-sp. The first ideal chokepoint for detectingany of RFID wearables such as 16, 16-wb or 2 c is the sales point 4-spdoorway as depicted that has been further adapted to include any ofwell-known RFID antenna and reader technologies for first emitting oneor more exciter fields 20-ef and second receiving and processing theexciter field(s) 20-ef, all as will be well understood by those skilledin the art of RFID systems. As gamer 2 s passes through an exciterfield(s) 20-ef wearing some form of sufficient passive RFID such as inthe form of anklet 16, wristband 16-wb or electronic ticket 2 c, thewell-known reader technology is sufficient for detecting the presenceand unique signal of the RFID to a high degree of accuracy, where theunique signal is translatable into a digital identifier that has beenprior related to the gamer 2 s, or the gamer 2 s's chosen avatar, all asprior taught in the co-pending application. Destination sales point 4-sppreferably further includes one or more cameras 55 for capturing images55-img of unknown destination shoppers/gamers 2 s as unknownshoppers/gamers 2 s approach and then proceed through the RFID detectingchokepoint, such as store front door. As images 55-img are captured ofone or more shopper/gamers 2 s proceeding into a store chokepoint, aswill be well understood by those familiar with image processing andespecially identification of the human form, it is possible to isolateindividuals even when there are multiple shopper/gamers 2 s that areessentially coming into and out of the storefront simultaneously andtherefore also occluding each other. After isolating individuals, it isthen also possible to associate with these yet unidentified isolatedindividual's various visual features including for example any of facialfeatures or body features including clothing colors. What is importantto understand by processing images 55-img it is possible to create alist of unknown shoppers/gamers 2 s detected as proceeding into thesales point 4-sp through the front door, where each shopper/gamer 2 sincludes at least one detected visual feature, again for exampleclothing colors or facial details.

Still referring to FIG. 10B, also shown is sales point pressure sensingdoor mat 4-sp-dm, where pressure sensing materials including fabrics andplastics are a well-known and emerging technology that was discussed inthe prior co-pending U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No.16/055,078 for THEME PARK GAMIFICATION, GUEST TRACKING AND ACCESSCONTROL SYSTEM. In the co-pending application, several sources wereidentified for obtaining sufficient pressure sensing materials. Pressuresensing was shown to be possible using various core technologies,regardless of which it has also been shown in the marketplace thatindividual footprints 2 s-fs-1 of shopper/gamer 2 s are detectable usingpressure sensing for representation as digital pressure features, fromwhich it is possible to perform 2D locating of the as of yet unknownshopper/gamer 2 s with respect to the doormat 4-sp-dm. As will also bewell understood by those familiar with imaging systems, by calibratingthe fixed locations of the one or more cameras 55 with respect to thesales point 4-sp and therefore also the doormat 4-sp-dm, it is possibleto further associate individual footstep pressure features with visualfacial or body features of an unknown individual in the list of unknownshoppers/gamers 2 s by correlating the calibrated locations of each typeof pressure vs. visual feature data. As will also be appreciated, usingtwo or more cameras 55 provides the opportunity to create 3Dcalculations of the identified facial or body features thus improvingthe correlation with the 2D pressure data from doormat 4-sp-dm.

Still referring to FIG. 10B, it is expected that unknown shopper/gamer 2s will eventually proceed through the sales point 4-sp front doorway andtherefore also the exciter field(s) 20-ef. It is important to understandthat no two-unknown shopper/gamers 2 s will occupy the same space at thesame time as they proceed through the exciter field(s) 20-ef. It is alsoimportant to understand that the exciter field(s) 20-ef may comprisemultiple individual constricted exciter fields, wherein each of themultiple constricted fields is associable with some exclusivesub-portion of doormat 4-sp-dm, such that it is possible to detectindividual RFIDs passing over narrower portions of doormat 4-sp-dm. Theconstricting of an exciter field 20-ef is dependent upon the desiredexpanse of the exciter field 20-ef, as is well-known in the art ofantenna design, which is one of the key reasons why the prior co-pendingapplication preferred the use of anklets 16 for holding the gamer's 2 sRFID. Using anklets 16 vs. wristbands 16-wb or electronic tickets 2 cprovides an assurance that the RFID to be detected will generally bewithin 6 inches of the doormat 4-sp-dm, therefore allowing for theimplementation of multiple, more highly constricted emitter fields 20-efthat sense perhaps only an area that is roughly half of the typicalhuman body width. As those familiar with object tracking systems willunderstand, it is preferably that the tracking data has a resolutionthat is half or less of the size of the object being tracked, where inthis case the object is a person. In any case, using the detected RFIDinformation it is possible to begin to associate unknown shopper/gamer's2 s on the unknown shopper gamer list with a unique RFID and thereforeat least unique avatar ID. It is also possible that an unknownshopper/gamer 2 s is not a gamer 2 s and therefore passes through theexciter field 20-ef without an RFID being detected. As those familiarwith object tracking systems will further understand the determinationand accuracy of the unknown shopper list is dependent upon severalfactor at least including: 1) the total number, positioning and image55-img field-of-view overlap of the one or more cameras 55 with respectto the doormat 4 s-dm, 2) the total number, positioning and exciterfield 20-ef overlap of any one or more emitters of exciter fields 20-efwith respect to the doormat 4 s-dm, and 3) the granularity of pressurefeature data representative of footsteps 2 s-fs-1.

Still referring to FIG. 10B, those familiar with object tracking systemswill also recognize that it is possible to further adapt or rearrangethe combination of RFID sensor 20-ef, image sensors 55 and pressuresensor 4 s-dm to increase the determination and accuracy of the unknownshopper list, as well as the conversion of the unknown shopper list intoa known gamer 2 s list as RFID data is sufficiently detected andassociated with an unknown shopper, or as an unknown shopper isconclusively determined not to be wearing an RFID. One example is to setup a second similar configuration just inside the sales point 4-spdoorway, thus continuing to video the unknown shoppers/gamers 2 s andetect their footsteps even after they pass through the first exciterfield(s) 20-ef, at least up and through a point where they then passthrough a second one or more exciter field(s) 20-ef. It is also possiblethat the exciter field(s) 20-ef are moved to a location that is at thefront of the doormat 4-sp-dm where the unknown shopper/gamer 2 s isfirst expected to make contact with the doormat 4-sp-dm, as opposed tothe back of the doormat 4-sp-dm closest to the doorway as depicted inFIG. 10B. While moving the exciter field(s) 20-ef is possible, this hasthe added drawback of sensing an additional number of individuals whoare simply passing by the sales point 4-sp, rather than walking into thesales point 4-sp.

Still referring to FIG. 10B, it is also possible that a partial list ofunknown shoppers/gamers 2 s that are known to be physically locatedwithin sales point 4-sp is further maintained past the original salespoint 4-sp entrance/doorway, where these unknown individuals remain onthis partial list until at some other location point and at some latertime within the shop 4-sp, using any of the same types of sensor dataincluding camera images 55-img from cameras 55 positioned within thesales point 4-sp, pressure data from floor sensors such as 4-spfpositioned within the sales point 4-sp, and/or RFID data from exciterfield(s) 20-ef positioned within the sales point 4-sp, any one or moreof the unknown individuals on the partial list is either confirmed as agamer 2 s or a shopper (i.e. not a gamer 2 s,) and therefore removedfrom the partial list of unknown shoppers detected to be within thesales point 4-sp.

Referring now to both FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B, the present inventionanticipates that any shopper or gamer 2 s coming within the sales point2 s may then also be given, pick up or otherwise obtain a sticker 4-stkto be placed ideally somewhere on their upper torso, where the sticker4-stk has a sufficiently unique symbol that is at least relatable to apersona type, for example a wizard, elf, spy, driver, etc. As thosefamiliar with image processing will understand, using any of one or morecameras 55 it is already well known and possible to detect individualshopper/gamers 2 s as the walk about within a sales point 4-sp. What canbe more challenging is to individually identify that shopper/gamer 2 s,or at least identify gamer 2 s's persona type or avatar identity, forwhich the present and prior co-pending teaching has provided usefultechnology uniquely combining imaging, RFID and pressure sensing. Byusing one or more cameras 55 alone, and therefore with or without alsothe use of RFID or pressure sensors, it is still possible to locateindividual human shapes, especially for example as they stand in frontof a sales point shelf, stand, display, etc., where it is expected thatthe view of the individual human by at least one camera 55 will not besubstantially occluded by other individual humans. As will be furtherunderstood, by using stickers 4-stk it is straightforward to locate theindividual human and associate the persona type of the detected sticker4-stk affixed on that human's upper torso, such that a computing systemwithin the sales point 4-sp has persona type information at the samepoint in time when the associated individual human is standing in frontan interior sales point such as a shelf, stand, display. Using thispersona type information as determined by detecting sticker 4-stk, orthe gamer ID as determined by any of the detecting means taught hereinor in the related applications, the present invention anticipatescreating any of multiple effects at, within, or upon the interior salespoint such as a shelf, stand, display, where the any of multiple effectsat least includes causing visual output, sound output, tactile output,motion output for example by causing an automated device to move, airpressure output or any form of sensory output noticeable or otherwiseeffecting the individual human. Regarding sticker 4-stk, it is alsonoted that a shopper who is not a gamer 2 s may use the sticker 4-stk tobe temporarily associated with a gamer 2 s persona while within thesales point 4-sp, thus experiencing any of the prior stated multipleeffects without actually playing in a game.

Referring next to FIG. 10C, the present inventor anticipates that salespoints 4-sp are further adapted to include one or more game accesspoints 30 within their premises, where the game access point 30 includesany of the herein taught apparatus and methods for a game access pointespecially including the use of a secret message output device 22, suchas a projector 21-p (not depicted,) a mirror/display 20, or a secretmessage display 20-d that is the mirror/display 20 without a mirrorcomponent and without an object tracking component (all as prior taughtin the co-pending application entitled INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKINGMIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM.) Sales point 4-sp game accesspoints 30 may also include any of actuated devices 50 and be selling ordisplaying any of mobile gaming devices 60. What is important tounderstand is that as the gamer 2 s's avatar identity is tracked withina given sales point 4-sp, it is possible to either: 1) create various ofthe multiple effects (without a game access point 30) as prior describedsimply to draw better attention to any one or more sales points 4-spproducts or services, especially those relating to the persona typematching either a shopper or a gamer 2 s, and 2) continuing the gamer 2s's game experience using any of the game access point 30 teachings asherein provided.

For example, the upcoming FIG. 11 will show an automatic game toydispenser 30-gtd for dispensing any one or more game toys such as sword62-swd, where this automatic dispenser is for example behind amirror/display 20 that includes an object tracking system camera 55 fordetecting the trajectory of the tip of an article 12, such as wand beingmoved by a gamer 2 s. It is anticipated in this example, that a gamer 2s has been directed to a particular sales point 4-sp by the gamingsystem 48 and is being given a chance to receive for example a surprisegame toy such as sword 62-swd (see FIG. 11,) or any mobile gaming device60 or destination product, where the gamer 2 s must for example completeany one or more “spell” gestures before the automatic dispenser 30-gtdwill then select a mobile gaming device 60 or at least some product forproviding to the gamer 2 s, where the selection algorithms executed bythe automatic dispenser 30-gtd rely at least in part upon gaminginformation provided to the dispenser 30-gtd by the gaming system 48.Also depicted in FIG. 10C, any of additional exciter fields 20-ef,camera(s) 55 and floor sensors 4-spf may be placed around the gameaccess point 30 for the purposes of identifying, confirming or trackingthe movements the gamer 2 s, where identification at least includes thegamer 2 s's avatar ID or persona type, where any of the determinedinformation is communicated to the interactive game system 48, wheresystem 48 then provides directives and feedback to at least the gameaccess point 30 that determined the information, in any form as hereintaught or will then also be obvious by a careful reading of the presentinvention, and where the game access point 30 within sales point 4-spprovides any of the gaming function herein described for example usingany of secret message output devices 22 or actuated devices 50.

Referring next to FIG. 10D, there is shown interactive gaming system 48providing any of game information to destination sale point 4-sp, wherepreferably any of game information includes the gamer 2 s's avatar ID orgamer ID that is at least indicative of an individual gamer's personatype, where for example the avatar or gamer ID is, or is equivalent to,an extended range readable tracking number such as taught in the priorco-pending U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 16/055,078 entitledTHEME PARK GAMIFICATION, GUEST TRACKING AND ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM (seeFIG. 1, element 2 c-3 of the co-pending application.) As prior taught,the extended range readable tracking number is implemented using atechnology such as passive RFID that can be read by an RFID readeremitting an exciter field such as 20-ef (see FIGS. 10A, 10B and 10C,)where as is well known in the art, a passive RFID device may optionallyinclude a writeable or re-writable memory that can for example beupdated at some point in time after the RFID has been manufactured. Thisoptional writeable or re-writable memory is also available for activeRFID solutions like the technology used in the Disney Magic Band. Theprior co-pending application further taught that the same trackingnumber that is associated with a gamer 2 s as an avatar or gamer ID isembedded in a close-range readable device, such as a near-fieldcommunications (NFC) barcode implemented in printed electronics. What isimportant to understand is that multiple technologies exist forproviding a remotely detectable avatar or gamer ID that either matchesidentification information pre-associated with a gamer 2 s, or isfurther associable with this pre-associated information in a computerdatabase, for example a database maintained by either gaming system 48,or by global eco-system 40 and then made available to system 48. Theprovided and remotely detectable avatar or gamer ID is preferably in atechnology form that is easy for the gamer 2 s to wear or otherwisecarry about on their person while within a destination 4-a or 4-b, andalso then interacting with a gaming system 48. Several implementationshave been taught in both the present and co-pending applicationsincludes electronic ticket 2 c, anklet 16 and wristband 16-wb, where theimplementations may be either or both close-range and extended-rangereadable, where close range is generally less than 6 inches and extendedrange is preferably up to 45 feet.

Still referring to FIG. 10D, what is desirable is that either the firsttracking number associated with a gamer 2 s's avatar or gamer ID, orsome second tracking number associable in a database with the firsttracking number, is embedded into any one or more mobile gaming devices60 that are purchased by a given gamer 2 s for use with respect to agame being provided by the presently taught game theater 100 or similar.One preferred solution for embedding either the first or second trackingnumber is to use a passive RFID, for example what is referred to as amicro-RFID, such as sold by Hitachi as a “ultra small package tag” USPT.While the read range of the micro-RFID is close range, it can beextended for example by the inclusion of an antenna. Other passiveextended range RFID devices are also usable and are well-known in theart. Regardless of the technology chosen, the present teachings preferusing some form of a readable-writeable ID memory device such as apassive RFID 4-rfid, where the ID memory device is included with,attached to or embedded within the mobile gaming device 60, where mobilegaming devices include any of: a) an article 12 such as a wizard's wandthat is a game toy for inputting gestures, motions, projections, orotherwise movement related data to gaming system 48, b) persona clothing19 such as a scarf that is game clothing especially supporting a personaor game theme, c) game activity logging media 13 such as a game log bookfor indicating game access points 30 visited by the gamer 2 s orotherwise recording gaming activities in a non-electronic format, d)secret message imaging devices such as eye glasses 14 and magnifyingglass 15, e) a mobile device such as a smart phone running a game app,or e) any object usable in any manner with respect to a game beingplayed by a gamer 2 s using the interactive gaming system 48 and any oneor more game access points 30.

Still referring to FIG. 10D, the present system then causes mobilegaming device 60 to be associated with gamer 2 s preferably at thepoint-of-sale within sale point 4-sp. As is well-known in the art, asales point 4-sp may include a read-write device capable of reading orwriting the ID memory device such as a passive RFID 4-rfid includedwith, attached to or embedded within the mobile gaming device 60. Thisread-write device may either be self-operated by gamer 2 s or operatedby a sale agent of the sales point 4-sp. Using either the sameread-write device, or some other electronic computing means, pre-knowninformation regarding the gamer 2 s is first determined and then used atleast in part for providing information to the read-write device to bewritten onto the mobile gaming devices 60's ID memory device. Thepreferred pre-known gamer 2 s information includes any of a uniqueticket number or tracking number associated with the gamer 2 s or thegamer 2 s's chosen avatar, as prior taught in relation to the smartticket 2 described in the co-pending application entitled THEME PARKGAMIFICATION, GUEST TRACKING AND ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM. The pre-knowngamer 2 s information is preferably stored within a database maintainedon either or both of gaming system 48 or global eco-system 40, wherethis stored pre-known gamer 2 s information is electronically accessibleat sales point 4-sp, for example accessible by a computing systemcontrolling the read-write device capable of reading or writing to theID memory device. It is also preferred that information sufficient ofuniquely associating the mobile gaming device 60 being purchased by agamer 2 s is then written onto the ID memory device by read-write deviceat the point of sale, after which sale information such as the producttype, produce number, manufacturer, sales point ID, salesperson, time ofsale, etc. is preferably provided to either or both of systems 48 and 40that are responsible for maintaining a database of gamer 2 s relatedinformation. If the ID memory device is only capable or being read andnot written to, it is preferred that the read-write device read a uniqueID embedded within the ID memory device and provides this along with anyother sales information for storage in the database including gamer 2 srelated information.

Still referring to FIG. 10D, at some future time after the sale of amobile gaming device 60 to a gamer 2 s, the gamer 2 s is anticipated touse the device 60 at a game access point 30. Game access point 30 thenuses gamer/device detection sub-component 30-det to automatically scanand detect gamer information pre-existing or written onto the ID memorydevice such as RFID 4-rfid included with, attached to or embedded withinthe mobile gaming device 60. After detecting this ID memory deviceinformation, access point 30 provides the information to gaming system48, where system 48 at least in part uses this information to affect thegaming experience of gamer 2 s. The detectable gamer information is alsoprovided to object tracking 30-ot if the type of detected mobile device60 is pre-known to be trackable by tracking system 30-ot, where trackingsystem 30-ot then tracks device 60 and provides this trackinginformation to gaming system 48, where system 48 at least in part usesthis information to affect the gaming experience of gamer 2 s. Uponreceiving detected gamer information from an access point 30, gamingsystem 48 may also request any additional gamer information that is forexample stored or maintained in a database outside of system 48, forexample in global eco-system 40, where system 48 at least in part usesthis additional gamer information to affect the gaming experience ofgamer 2 s.

And finally, with respect to FIG. 10D, it is possible that some mobilegaming devices 60 do not include an ID memory device such as RFID4-rfid. For example, gamer 2 s may already own products such as clothing19 or article 12 that were made and purchased prior to or notspecifically for use with the present invention 100. The presentinvention anticipates that these devices 60 that do not include an IDmemory device such as RFID 4-rfid are still detectable using well-knownimage analysis algorithms as earlier discussed for analyzing capturedimages 15-img to classify or identify objects. The game access points 30may therefore include any one or more object tracking cameras 30-ot-camthat are capable of capturing images of the gamer 2 s and processingthese images to classify or identify one or more products being worn orused by the gamer 2 s, for example including persona clothing 19,articles 12, secret message imaging devices 14 or 15, or in general anyof mobile gaming devices 60 whose images are pre-known to the objecttracking system 30-ot specifically, or the gaming system 48 generally.

Referring next to FIG. 10E, as is well-known in the art of saleprocessing, it is typical to provide a purchaser with discounts basedfor example upon some information presented by the purchaser. Thepresent invention anticipates that a gamer 2 s is identifiable to asales point 4-sp through any of several means taught herein or in therelated applications, where after identification the sales point 4-spcommunicates the identification information to either or both the gamingsystem 48 or the global eco-system 40 and receives back additional gamerinformation and/or suggested sales benefits, and where the sales point4-sp provides some additional sales benefit to the gamer 2 s based atleast in part upon any of the additional gamer information or suggestedsales benefits. The received additional gamer information for use indetermining additional sales benefits includes any of: a) the state ofthe game with respect to gamer 2 s including points accumulated, level'sachieved, game access points visited, destination objects or symbolscaptured as images, current assignments, missions accomplished, etc., orb) the gamer 2 s's persona, avatar or personal (profile) identifyinginformation, and additional benefits include any of: a) discounts orspecial pricing, b) special seating at restaurants or shows, c) shorterwait times through preferred access such as a theme park fast lane, d)unique products or services not generally available, e) customperformances or shows of attention at the sales point such as a themedcharacter appearing to give the gamer their product, f) any benefit thatis not normally available for some reason or at some price to anon-gamer, g) entrance into a lottery, or h) some special prize productor service that becomes available as a result of competition in anon-going or concluded game.

The sales point 4-sp preferably provides information regarding all salessuch as products and services purchased to the interactive gaming system40 or the gaming platform 10, where this sales information can be usedas either an actionable game response or as a means of accumulating gamerewards or benefits. For example, interactive gaming system 48 decide toenter the gamer into a lottery based upon any of the sales information,where the lottery may be to win a themed game toy or to be given accessto a particular destination location or event. As those familiar withdestinations will understand, there are virtually limitless number ofways to create incentives for a gamer tied to an on-going game and adestination, such that what is important is that the gaming system 100maintains both the on-going game state of a gamer and informationrelated to destination purchases and destination locations visited.

Still referring to FIG. 10E, also as is well-known in the art of saleprocessing, it is typical to provide a purchaser with a sales receiptrecording a sales transaction, where often this sales receipt isprinted, but may also be provided as an electronic receipt viewable onthe purchaser's personal computing device such as a smart phone ortablet. The present invention anticipates that the receipt generatingsystem used by a sales point 4-sp receives additional gamer informationfrom either or both the gaming system 48 and global eco-system 40 priorto generating the sales receipt, where the receipt generating systemthen alters the generated receipt to include additional information atleast in part based upon any of the additional gamer information, wherethe received additional gamer information includes any of: a) the stateof the game with respect to gamer 2 s including points accumulated,level's achieved, game access points visited, destination objects orsymbols captured as images, current assignments, missions accomplished,etc., or b) the gamer 2 s's persona, avatar or personal (profile)identifying information, and where the additional information includedon the generated sales receipt is any of: a) non-encoded informationreadable by the gamer 2 s such as text, b) encoded information notreadable by the gamer 2 s, such as a bar code or QR code, and where thegenerated sales receipt is a printed receipt, c) non-visible informationthat is either non-encoded or encoded, where the non-visible informationis for example printed onto the generated sales receipt using aninvisible ink such as is generally available in the marketplace for useat least with ink-jet printers, and where non-visible information isthen made visible when it is exposed to a non-visible energy such asultra-violet light.

The present invention anticipates that the additional informationincluded on the generated sales receipt is a part of the on-going gameas being directed by the gaming system 48, and where: a) the additionalinformation is directly useable by the gamer 2 s as a clue, question,answer, directive, etc., b) the additional information may be capturedas images 15-img using a secret message imaging device such as eyeglasses 14 or magnifying glass 15 for use a gamer's actionable response,or c) if the additional information is non-visible it may be turned intovisible information by being exposed to an appropriate non-visibleenergy such as ultra-violet light being output by using a secret messageimaging device such as eye glasses 14 or magnifying glass 15, where theexposed information is then directly usable by the gamer 2 s or may becaptured in an image 15-img to be provided to gaming system 48 as thegamer's actionable response.

And finally, still referring to FIG. 10E, there is shown a gamer 2 s'sgame log book 13, where preferably a sales point 4-sp agent or machinestamps or prints visible or non-visible, encoded or non-encodedinformation onto the game log book 13, where this stamped information isthen either directly usable by the gamer 2 s or may be captured in animage 15-img to be provided to gaming system 48 as the gamer'sactionable response. As will be well understood by those familiar withdestinations such as theme parks, in addition to receiving a stamp forvisiting a sales point 4-sp, it is ideal that gamer 2 s's may receivestamps or markings at any of the special interaction points associatedwith the destination 4-a, 4-b, and not necessarily associated with thegame being directed by the gaming system 48, where these specialinteraction points can include themed characters that are walking aboutthe destination and where for example the special interaction point suchas a themed character stamps or signs the gamer 2's log book after alsofirst receiving information about the gamer 2 s by communication withthe gaming system 48, where the information provided by the specialinteraction point such as a themed character to the log book 13 is basedat least in part upon the received gamer information. For example, athemed character of a destination may be carrying a portable electronicdevice that allows the character to automatically detect the gamer 2 savatar ID, after which gamer information is then also automaticallytransmitted to the themed character's portable electronic device byeither or both the interactive gaming system 48 or global eco system 40,and where the themed character after receiving the gamer informationwrites or stamps some message onto the gamer's log book 13 based atleast in part upon the gamer information and useable as a gaming systemclue, question, answer, directive, etc.

Referring next to FIG. 11, there is shown a game access point 30 thatincludes an actuated device 50 that is a game toy dispenser 30-gtd fordispensing any of toys or objects usable or in association with the gamebeing played by a gamer 2 s, especially including any of mobile gamingdevices 60. As previously taught, using any of a number of technologies,as a gamer 2 s approaches a game access point 30, access point 30 isable to automatically detect gamer 2 s or a mobile device 60 beingcarried by gamer 2 s. The any number of technologies especially includethose technologies capable of reading extended range electronic datasuch as wi-fi, Bluetooth and RFID, where RFID is preferred because thesolution has an option to use passive, or powerless means forrepresenting the extended range data. As those familiar with passive UHFRFID will understand, the gamer 2 s and/or the mobile gaming devices 60carried by the gamer may include a passive RFID that is detectable bygamer/device detection 30-det using an RFID reader and antenna atdistances up to and exceeding 45 feet. For mobile gaming devices 60 suchas eye glasses 14 or the magnifying glass 15, it is desirable to embed acommunications technology such as wi-fi or Bluetooth, especially astaught for eye glasses 14 in the prior co-pending application entitledINTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM.While the embedded communications technologies such as wi-fi orBluetooth do require power in the form of a battery, they also enablethe two-way communication of data including images such as 15-img hereindescribed. In the case where the gamer 2 s is using any mobile gamingdevice 60 such as glasses 14 or 15 that is adapted to include thispowered form of communication, then gamer/device detection 30-det mayalso be equipped to automatically detect the proximity of the soequipped mobile gaming device 60, as will be well understood by thoseskilled in the art of those technologies especially as they apply tolocal positioning systems. Regardless of the detection apparatus andmethod, once a gamer 2 s and/or one of the mobile gaming devices 60 thathas been pre-associated with the gamer (see for example the teachingsrelated to prior FIG. 10D,) the game access point 30 communicates thedetected gamer information to gaming system 48.

Still referring to FIG. 11, gaming system 48 then transmits gamerinformation back to the game access point 30, where the game toydispenser 30-gtd at least in part uses any of the transmitted gameinformation to affect the selection or dispensing process of a game toyto the gamer 2 s. For example, based upon the game information, gamer 2s might be required to input a spell using their wizard wand 12, wherethe trajectory of the tip of article 12 is tracked by the game accesspoint object tracking system 30-ot that analyzes images captured bycamera 30-ot-cam, and where the analysis of the trajectory of the tip ofarticle 12 is interpretable as a spell or command, all as priordiscussed especially in relation to the prior co-pending applicationentitled INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENTSYSTEM. In general, gamer 2 s may be dispensed any game toy available inthe dispenser under any condition that at least in part uses thetransmitted gamer information, where conditions include: a) that thegamer 2 s is identified as a specific persona that has achieved acertain amount of points or achievement level, b) that the gamer 2 s hasaccomplished a specific task as assigned by the gaming system 48, wheretasks include any set of actions, either mental or physical, required bythe gamer 2 s for example answering a question, or collecting stampsfrom destination locations proving that the gamer has attended thelocation, where the gamer 2 s proves the attendance by taking a pictureof the stamp for example using their eye glasses 14 or magnifying glass15, c) that the gamer 2 s has purchased some other product with aproof-of-purchase being an image of the sales receipt, or d) that thegamer 2 s has been selected for any other reason to receive a toy, forexample by winning a game lottery.

Still referring to FIG. 11, exactly like the teachings related to FIG.10D, game toy dispenser 30-gtd preferably includes read-write apparatusfor receiving gamer information for writing onto a memory ID deviceassociated with the dispensed game toy, where for example the gamerinformation is the gamer 2 s's avatar ID and the memory device is amicro-RFID 4-rfid that is embedded into a game toy such as sword 62-swd.Read-write apparatus can additionally read information such as a uniqueproduct code from the memory ID device such as 4-rfid that is thenautomatically transmitted to either of the gaming system 48 or theglobal eco-system 40 for storage in a database in association with thegamer 2 s ID. In any case, what is desirable is that the game toy thathas been dispensed is automatically detectable at any game access point30 and associable with the gamer 2 s for which it was dispensed. Likethe sale point 4-sp teachings described in relation to FIG. 10D, gametoy dispenser system 30-gtd and/or game access point 30 including thedispenser 30-gtd, preferably provide additional transaction informationsuch as date, time, product type, manufacturer's product number, etc. tobe stored in association with the gamer 2 s ID on either or both thegaming system 48 and the global eco-system 40. Access point 30comprising dispenser 30-gtd optionally include sales receipt printingdevice for outputting sales receipts 4-pr 1 or 4-pr 2 as prior taught inrelation to FIG. 10E. And finally, with respect to FIG. 11, game accesspoint 30 including dispenser 30-gtd optionally includes a secret messageoutput device 22 for outputting secret messages by the gaming system 48that are relevant to the processes of selecting a toy for dispensing orotherwise directing the gamer 2 s.

Referring next to FIG. 12, there is shown a game access point 30including a secret message output device 22 such as projector 21-p forprojecting a public image including a secret message image or video, forexample of an orc that is positioned to interact with a gamer 2 s. Likeall game access points 30, gamer 2 s is automatically detected when theyenter the presence of the game access point 30. It is noted, that forany game access point 30, a gamer 2 s may either have approached gameaccess point 30 on their own initiative, or may have been summoned togame access point 30 by the gaming system. It is also noted thatmultiple gamers 2 s might be approaching a game access point 30 atsubstantially the same time. The present invention has already taughtspecific means of limiting the display of the secret messages output bya device 22 to a select one or more gamers 2 s from a multiplicity ofgamers 2 s detected to be present at the game access point 30, seeespecially co-pending U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No.15/975,236 entitled INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY ANDENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM. The present invention anticipates using pressuresensitive flooring also as prior taught in relation to co-pending U.S.Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 16/055,078 THEME PARK GAMIFICATION,GUEST TRACKING AND ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM such that the flooring area infront of a secret message display 22 might be for example marked offwith a circle sufficient for a single gamer 2 s to be present, or markedof with multiple circles. Using the pressure sensing flooring, the gameaccess point 30 can detect the presence of a person, while then usingother prior taught techniques such as causing LEDs to blink on eyeglasses 14, the game access point may then use it embedded objecttracking system 30-ot to decode the flashing LEDs confirming theidentity of the gamer 2 s wearing the glasses 14 (as prior taught in theco-pending application INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY ANDENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM) that is standing within a pre-known and calibratedlocation such as a circle.

Still referring to FIG. 12, what is most important is that a gamer 2 sis selected for live interaction with the game access point 30, wherelive interaction minimally includes: 1) the gamer 2 s using a secretmessage imaging device such as eye glasses 14 sees a secret messagevideo, 2) the gamer 2 s articulates a game toy such as sword 62-swd,where the articulations are trackable using the object tracking system30-ot associated with the game access point 30, for example the objecttracking system 30-ot includes a camera for capturing images of thegamer 2 s and game toy such as sword 62-swd, and where some portion ofthe game toy is tracked and interpreted as it is articulated (seeespecially the co-pending application INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKINGMIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM,) and 3) the gaming system 48 orthe access point 30 causes updates to the secret message at least inpart based upon the game toy articulations. What is further desirable isthat: 4) the updates to the secret messages made by the access point 30in response to the articulations of the game toy such as 62-swd arefurther based at least in part upon any of the game information, forexample including gamer 2 s persona type, avatar ID, points accumulated,achievement level, age, sex, etc. and 5) that the articulated toy suchas sword 62-swd is capable of actuating affects such as vibration or theoutput of light, and where at any point after the gamer 2 s is detectedby gamer/device detection 30-det, game access point 30 transmits signalsusing system communications 30-com to communications elements embeddedwith the game toy, where the transmitted signals are processed by acomputing element within the game toy in order to start, alter or stopsome game toy effect, such as vibration or the output of light.

Referring next to FIG. 13, there is shown a light gun 62-gun that iswell known in the art for use as a video game controller for aiming andshooting in a video game. The functionality of the light gun includes agamer 2 s peering down the scope of the gun at a video screen withmoving objects that are targets, where the targets and the surroundingscene as displayed on the video screen are viewable to the naked eye.The present invention further adapts the video screen to be a secretmessage output device 22 of any taught or anticipated configurationincluding a display 20 or projector 21-p. The present invention alsofurther adapts the traditional light gun to include a secret video scope15-6, thus becoming light gun 62-gun, where the video scope 15-6 is likeother variations of magnifying glass 15 herein taught. What is mostimportant is the scope 15-6 includes at least a polarizing lens such as15-lp for transmitting only the secret message image(s) such that thegamer 2 s is using gun 62-gun to shoot at images that cannot otherwisebe seen by the naked eye. Optionally, scope 15-6 comprises 15-lp-as,where the polarizing lens is further adapted to include an activeshutter, the benefits of which have been prior taught within, or wherescope 15-6 comprises 15-lp-as-md, where the polarizing lens is furtheradapted to include both an active shutter and a modulator, the benefitsof which have also been prior taught within. Using the teachingdescribed in FIG. 13, a gamer 2 s uses an adapted light gun 62-gun tosee targets that are secret message images not otherwise perceivable tothe naked eye, and then uses the light gun to shoot at these secrettargets.

Referring next to FIG. 14, there is shown a game clue symbol 48-sym thathas been visually divided into a minimum of 2 parts, specifically asymbol key 48-sym-key that is displayed on a secret message imagingdevice such as eye glasses 14 or magnifying glass 15 in response todirectives from the gaming system 48, where the display is caused by anymeans taught herein or within the related co-pending applications, atleast including the use of an active shutter layer over the polarizationlayer of a lens either in eye glasses 14 or magnifying glass 15, or theprojection of an image C using an lcd projector such as 15-lcd taught inrelation to FIG. 6 for use in magnifying glass 15, or the projection ofan image in any form of a augmented reality device further adapted toeye glasses 14 as is well-known in the art. Alternatively, rather thangaming system 48 providing the image directly, or directives to providethe image of key 48-sym-key to the gamer 2 s via their mobile gamingdevice, it is also anticipated that gamer 2 s capture an image ofmarkings found either specifically within a game access point 30 orotherwise upon or within any surface or object found within adestination 4-a or 4-b, where an object, or destination symbol, mightinclude a painting, a page in a book, or markings on a wall or floor ofthe destination. What is important is that gamer 2 s using their mobilegaming device such as 14 or 15 sees an image of key 48-sym-key. Ifcaptured by the gamer 2 s, it is further anticipated that the capturedimage is transmitted to the gaming system 48, where the gaming system 48uses the prior taught sub-components including image clue processing48-icp and object classification and identification 48-oci to firstanalyze the captured image to confirm for the gamer 2 s that they havefound a key to a secret symbol 48-sym, where the confirmation isprovided to the gamer 2 s preferably by using of any of the UI elementsand teachings herein described for magnifying glass 15, or priordescribed for eye glasses 14 in the co-pending application.

Still referring to FIG. 14, gamer 2 s then searches throughout themultiplicity of game access points 30 or through destinations 4-a or 4-bto find a matching lock symbol 48-sym-lock, which when properly alignedwith key symbol(s) 48-sym-key, combine to form 48-key-lock that issubstantially similar to secret symbol 48-sym. In order to determine ifa gamer 2 s has found the required lock 48-sym-lock, gamer 2 s views thelock through their mobile gaming device such as 14 or 15, attempting toalign the key 48-sym-key and the lock 48-key-lock, where once alignedthe gamer 2 s takes a picture of the lock 48-sym-lock that istransmitted to gaming system 48 along with the key 48-sym-key or relatedinformation currently displayed on the gamer 2 s's device 14 or 15.Gaming system 48 then uses image clue processing 48-icp and objectclassification and identification 48-oci to first analyze the capturedlock image 48-sym-lock in combination with the currently display keyimage 48-sym-key to confirm for the gamer 2 s that they have found avalid key and lock 48-key-lock representative of a secret symbol 48-sym.Once confirmed, gaming system 48 uses the confirmation as an actionableresponse from gamer 2 s, where the confirmed key and lock 48-key-lock isused at least in part to effect any change in the gamer 2 s's gamingexperience. The lock symbol 48-sym-lock may be visually apparent to thenaked eye, or may be presented by a game access point 30 as a secretmessage. Where the lock symbol 48-sym-lock is visually apparent, a gamer2 s using their smart phone with an appropriate gaming app, may performall the necessary steps herein described in relation to FIG. 14 forfinding, viewing and using key(s) 48-sym-key to align with visible locks48-sym-lock for creating valid key-lock combinations 48-key-lock.Anticipated responses by the gaming system 48 to the successful findingof a key-lock combination 48-key-lock by a gamer include unlocking anobject such as a secret door into a room or a door on a safe, while anydirective issued by the gaming system 48 at least in part based upon thefinding of a key-lock combination 48-key-lock by a gamer is otherwiseconsidered to be within the scope of the present invention.

Referring next to FIG. 15A, there is shown levitating device 63 that isan actuated device 50 capable of receiving controlling signals from agame access point 30, where the received controlling signals actuatedevice 63 causing the apparent effect of levitating an object such asreflective screen 21-rsf-2. Levitating devices 63 are well known in theart and typically comprise a base 63-bse with sufficient electronics forconverting electrical power into a variable strength magnetic field63-mf, where the magnetic field 63-mf causes the magnetic repulsion of ametal plate 63-pit, and where plate 63-pit is in some way connected toan object such as reflective screen 21-rsf-2 such that as plate 63-pitis repulsed and therefore levitates the connected object also levitates.It is also well known that the magnetic field is variable in such a wayas to cause the metal plate 63-pit to spin about a vertical axisperpendicular to the horizontal floating plane of the plate 63-pit, withthe visual effect of causing the connected object such as screen21-rsf-2 to spin. Preferably, controlling signals for levitating device63 are based at least in part upon any combination of: a) gameinformation related to a gamer 2 s detected to be within the proximityof base 63-bse, or b) mobile gaming device 60 movements, for example themovements of an article 12 as determined by object tracking system 30-otusing camera 30-ot-cam as preferably caused by a gamer 2 s detected tobe within the proximity of base 63-bse.

Referring now to FIGS. 15A and 15B, game access point 30 uses any ofsensing technologies such as herein described or as described in any ofthe co-pending applications to detect the proximity of either or both agamer 2 s or any of mobile gaming devices 60 such as article 12, eyeglasses 14 or sword 62-swd. Also, as prior taught, once a gamer 2 s or amobile gaming device 60 is detected by game access point 30, detectedgamer 2 s and device 60 information is preferably communicated to gamingsystem 48, whereupon gaming system 48 provides to game access point 30game information for directing an interaction with gamer 2 s inaccordance with the current game datum as maintained by system 48. Gameaccess point 30 at least in part uses the game information communicatedby system 48 for directing an interaction with gamer 2 s to actuate anyof a secret message output device 22 or an actuated device 50. Regardingthe configuration of the game access point 30 as depicted in the presentFIGS. 15A and 15B, preferably game access point 30 controls actuateddevice 50 that is a levitating device 63 for levitating a sphericallyshaped reflective screen 21-rsf-2 and further comprises both a secretmessage output device 22 and an object tracking system 30-ot. Secretmessage output device 22 preferably comprises one or more projectorssuch as 21-p-1 and 21-p-2 for projecting secret message images A andcomplimentary image B as herein taught in especially in relation toFIGS. 3 and 4, where images A and B are projected onto and reflect offof spherically shaped reflecting screen 21-rsf-2, where the compositionof reflecting screen of 21-rsf-2 is metallic versus non-metallic paintfor reflecting images A and B while minimally effecting the polarizationof either image, all as is well known in the art especially as itrelates to movie theater screens for displaying 3D movies. As priordiscussed herein, the reflected A and B images will be perceived by thenaked eye as a public image, whereas a gamer 2 s viewing the sphericallyshaped reflective screen 21-rsf-2 will substantially perceive onlysecret message image(s) A.

Still referring to FIGS. 15A and 15B, game access point 30 as depictedfurther comprises object tracking system 30-ot for tracking themovements of any mobile gaming device 60, such as article 12 a wizard'swand being moved about my gamer 2 s. Especially as prior taught in theco-pending application entitled INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKINGMIRROR-DISPLAY AND ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM for inclusion withmirror/display 20, object tracking system 30-ot for tracking article 12preferably includes camera 30-ot-cam for capturing images of article 12as it is moved and determining from these images at least the trajectoryof the tip of article 12, where the determined trajectories areinterpretable as controlling signals. As those familiar withentertainment and gaming systems will understand, while it is preferredthat game access point 30 further includes object tracking system 30-otfor determining controlling signals based upon article 12 movements,where article 12 movement based controlling signals are used at least inpart in combination with game information to determine the actuation oflevitating device 63, where the actuation includes the levitatingmovement up and down, and/or spinning of reflective sphere 21-rsf-2, thedetermination and inclusion of device 60 such as article 12 movementbased control signals is optional and should therefore be considered asexemplary, rather than a limitation of the present invention. As willalso be clear to the careful reader, its is possible to apply thepresent teachings to any number of physical objects and not just forexample reflective sphere 21-rsf-2, where for example another objectcould be a mock feather including magnetic material that appears to belevitated based upon the gamer's tracked article 12 movements.

Still referring to FIGS. 15A and 15B, there is shown the preferred useof two or more secret message projectors 21-p-1 and 21-p-2. As will bewell understood by those familiar with the operation of 3D projectionsystems especially as used in a movie theater, by using two projectors21-p-1 and 21-p-2 it is possible to create a 3D secret messages A, wherethe complementary image B can be chosen such that the resulting publicimage 21-img is either in 2D or 3D. What is important to see is that a3D effect is creating by causing the gamer 2 s's left eye to receive a“left” scene image while at substantially the same time the gamer 2 s'sright eye is receiving a “right” scene image. For this effect, it isnecessary for gamer 2 s to be viewing a reflective screen 21-rsf or21-rsf-2 using eye glasses 14 rather than magnifying glass 15, since eyeglasses 14 provide separate control over the transmission of images intothe gamer 2 s's left eye vs. right eye. As will also be well understoodby those familiar with 3D imaging systems and as taught in the priorco-pending application INTERACTIVE OBJECT TRACKING MIRROR-DISPLAY ANDENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM with respect to glasses 14, glasses 14 are furtheradapted to include an active shutter layer such that it is possible tocontrol the actuation of the active shutters in each left and right lensof glasses 14 so as to block or transmit temporally alternatingprojected left and right scene images, all of which is well-known in theart as a means for creating the perception of 3D for a viewer such asgamer 2 s.

Still referring to FIG. 15B, the present invention teaches a new meansfor interacting with left and right projected scene secret images A forthe perception of a gamer 2 s that the scene is three dimensional.Specifically, glasses 14 and all of the variants as taught in theco-pending prior application may be further adapted to include a secondmodulator 15-md as taught herein in relation to FIG. 5C. In FIGS. 5A and5B, lens 15-lp-as comprising a combination of a polarizer layer, such aseither a linear or circular polarizer, and an active shutter layer, wasshown to always transmit through the polarizer layer only selectedpolarized rays from a secret message image A, and by controllablyactuating the active shutter layer, the secret message image A wasblocked or transmitted in coordination with the projection of the imageA by projectors 21-p. This same combination of functionality was taughtin the prior co-pending application with respect to eye glasses 14. Whatwas additionally taught in FIG. 5C was that lens 15-lp-as was furtheradapted to include an electronically controllable second modulator 15-mdthus forming new lens 15-ls-as-md, where each of left and right lens ofprior taught eye glasses 14 are herein taught to be further adapted aswell.

The purpose and use of the second modulator layer 15-md is tocontrollably alter the polarization orientation of the light raysincoming into the lens 15-lp-as-md, such that by altering thepolarization orientation of the incoming rays, it is possible to causethe rays to be either transmitted or blocked by polarizer 15-lp. As willbe well understood by those familiar with linear polarizers and lightmodulators, by adapting eye glasses 14 to include a second modulator, itis possible to modulate either the rays coming into the left or rightlens of glasses 14 such that the linear polarization angle of the raysare effectively rotated by 90 degrees, where the so rotated rays willthen be orthogonal to the underlying linear polarizer layer and as suchwill be substantially block from transmission to the wearer of glasses14 such as gamer 2 s. The net effect is that glasses 14 areelectronically adjustable for switching between left and right lenseswith identical transmission of incoming light rays based upon thepolarization angle of the incident rays, to left and right lenses withorthogonal transmission of incoming light rays based upon thepolarization angle of the incident rays, where identical transmissionsupports simultaneous viewing of a 2D projected image scene andorthogonal transmission supports simultaneous viewing of a 3D projectedleft and right eye scenes. Simultaneous viewing of 3D left and rightimages is an alternative to the alternating viewing of left and rightimage as afforded by the alternating actuating of left and right activeshutters, all as is well known in the art and as prior described.

Still referring to FIG. 15B, when projecting images onto a non-flatsurface it is preferred that the secret message output device 22comprising one or more projectors such as 21-p-1 and 21-p-2 implement awell-known method referred to as either projection mapping, spatialaugmented reality or video mapping, where instead of projecting on aflat screen, light is mapped onto any shape surface, turning commonobjects of any 3D shape into interactive displays. More formally,projection mapping is the display of an image on a non-flat or non-whitesurface and is herein preferred so that the gamer 2 s has the perceptionthat the secret image being viewed is being spherically emitted from thereflecting surface 21-rsf-2. The use of projection mapping is consideredto be herein incorporated into any of the anticipated or possible usesof projectors 21-p, whether projecting onto a spherical ball or thefaçade of a building. The present invention offers the unique ability touse projection mapping on a non-flat or non-white surface to create forexample a static public image while at the same time create adynamically moving secret image A, whereas the projected secret image Achanges, the complimentary image B is sufficiently altered such that thecombination of images A and B provides a static public image, all waswill be well understood by those skilled in the art of projectionsystems and by a careful reading of the present invention.

CONCLUSION AND RAMIFICATIONS

Thus, the reader will see that the present game theater provides for aphysical-virtual gaming system with many benefits to destinations suchas theme and amusement parks, museums, resorts, casinos, airports,universities, etc. The overall benefits include a physical-virtualgaming system that draws the gamer throughout the destination whileintegrating tightly with the destination's existing themes, encouragingthe gamer to visit specific destination locations, to purchasedestination products and services, and to otherwise more deeply engagewith the destination. The physical-virtual games are meant to be shortinteractions intermittently mixed with the gamer's total experience,where the interactions are physically spread throughout the destination.Unlike a traditional gaming system such as a computer or gaming console,gamers are required to move about to multiple game access points,sometimes choosing the next access point and other times being summoned.Unlike AR games played using for example a smart phone, the gamer ismore deeply immersed as the game content includes real-world objects asopposed to real-world objects with overlaid “augmented” digitalinformation. The real-world objects, as game access points, can outputgame content, where the game content can be seen by the naked eye, orcan only be seen as a secret message through a secret message imagingdevice. In the present physical-virtual gaming system gamers areautomatically identified and tracked, including determining whichdestination products and services they have purchased and/or arewearing, where this information leads to more fun as gamers engage thedestinations themes to advance in the physical-virtual game.

The herein described game access points can provide differing gamerexperiences at any time to any gamer playing in any of multiple possiblegames, where even a single gamer may receive a different experienceduring a subsequent interaction with a same game access point, whereindeed the game can be “never ending” and the gamer's current game stateis tracked indefinitely, even beyond the normal destination physical andtime of access boundaries. Therefore, the physical-virtual gaming systemcan extend across multiple destination visits and even multipledestinations, where for example the destinations are a group of museumsand the game continues as a gamer visits a different museum.

The present invention teaches significant apparatus and methods andpresents only some of the many possible example uses of the present gametheater. Many more uses are possible as will be apparent from a carefulreading of the present and related co-pending applications. In general,unlike a movie theater with a single larger screen that involves theviewer with a single storyline, a game theater distributes the singlescreen as a multiplicity of screens strategically located throughout thedestination. The game theater screens comprise the secret message outputdisplays as prior taught by the present inventor, and as further taughtherein especially in relation to projector systems. Also, unlike a movietheater, in the presently taught game theater, viewers move about to thevarious screens in either a self-directed or game directed sequence, andin this regard, they are autonomously traversing the characterstoryline. As they physically traverse the storyline throughout thedestination, viewers also become doers as they stop at game accesspoints comprising any type and kind of physical props and devices andengage in physical and mental challenges. For example, the gamer mightbe presented with an actuated device that is a look-a-like bomb thatmust be defused with 60 seconds or the gamer is “blown up,” wheresuccesses increase game points and peer recognition and failures do theopposite. In another example, one or more gamers who may or may not knoweach other are inside of a room that is crafted to look like the bridgeof the USS Enterprise from Star Trek, and they must together negotiatewith a Klingon war lord or be destroyed. The Klingon war load could bean animation being displayed on a screen and responding using and AIsystem, or it could be an actor being videoed in another studio who islistening to the gamer(s) and responding accordingly.

The results of each gamer's interaction with these various game accesspoints is used to provide scoring, indications of mastery of levels,player health, etc., all similar to today's video games. By usingdisplays and projectors capable of providing secret messages to thegamers, each gamer partakes upon an individualized quest while at thesame time public images are presented that continue to be appropriatefor the existing destination that has been gamified using the conceptsherein and prior taught.

Another significant benefit of the present teachings is the integrationof the physical-virtual gaming system with the destinations guestservices, where for example gamers use a mobile gaming device comprisinga camera to image objects or symbols located throughout the destinationthat serve to give the gamer a “you are here” registration with respectto the destination. Using the same mobile gaming device, the system canprovide information to the gamer directly related to the game, such asfinding another game access point, or generally related to thedestination but not specifically the game, for example finding adestination service or facility or even determining walking time betweenthe present gamer location and some other desired game or non-gamerelated destination location. Game destination locations are not justinteractive game access points but can also be any of destination gameparts including objects or symbols located throughout the destination,where an object is any physical structure of any size or form and asymbol is any marking on any object.

This functionality allows a destination to pre-establish a significantlist of themed objects and symbols for creating a seek-and-find elementto a physical-virtual game, where in one example gamers solve riddles tohelp locate an object or symbol and in other cases they use a mobilegaming device such as the herein described magnifying glass or theirsmart phone and game app to receive “warmer”/“colder” general directionhints for locating the object or symbol. This in turn provides asignificant opportunity for the system to assist the destination in theleveling of crowd flow throughout the destination as gamers are summonedto specific destination locations or otherwise encouraged to exploredifferent areas of the destination based upon current crowd sizes.Especially for theme parks, it is typical that themed characters arewalking about the destination and that gamers would like to find thesecharacters. Using the present system, it is possible to track thelocation of the themed characters as a moving target and then direct agamer to the themed character, where for example once the gamer findsthe character they take a selfie image using a mobile game devicecomprising a camera and the selfie image is usable as a gamer'sactionable game response. Like objects and symbols, a moving target suchas a themed character then also becomes a game part, or part of thegame.

In another advantage of the present system, especially when used at atheme park including additional locations such as resorts and resortrooms, the system can learn various gamer information including forexample their competency with respect to an aspect of a game, such asmaking gestures with wand or answering theme-based questions. Using thislearned gamer information, the system can suggest training options to agamer for practicing when the theme park is either closed or wheneverthe gamer prefers. Training options can include practicing spells usinga wand and an interactive mirror-display or watching themed content on adisplay that will be useful for the gamer to answer questions or solvechallenges with respect to the game. It is also possible for the systemto arrange social gatherings for example at a destination restaurant ata certain time, where the invited gamers share important qualities suchas a game persona, level of achievement or current state in the game.

In yet another example of the uses and benefits of the present gametheater, it is possible to incentivize gamers to achieve a certain levelof mastery or accomplishments in the physical-virtual destination game,where the gamers are competing with other gamers and the results areprovided through for example the gaming system's social media platformor public displays located throughout the destination. In this contest,one or more winners may be announced that are invited to a publiclocation such as a shop where they are given a physical challenge toperform, such as casting a certain difficult spell using their wand orinteracting with a physical interface such as a mock nuclear controlpanel where the gamer must press the right button sequence to stop thenuclear explosion in a limited amount of time. If they succeed in thephysical challenge they are immediately rewarded, where for example abox opens and inside is a highly sought-after toy relevant to the game.Other physical challenges can simply be available all the time for anygamer to take on, where in one example there is a sword beingmagnetically held with a certain amount of force in a mock rock, and thegamer attempts to raise the sword a certain distance out of the rock,the distance of which is tracked by the system on a leader board, wherea threshold distance wins a prize or some advantage in thephysical-virtual game. Another physical challenge would be a spellcaster display located in a ride line at a theme park, where as gamersare waiting in line they can cast a spell as prompted by the system.Over time, as the gamer goes through more ride lines they can build upspell points and value in the physical-virtual game, also providing adistraction for the longer ride lines.

As a careful reader will see, the present invention and the relatedapplications provide many apparatus and methods, some of which are noveland useful by themselves or in various combinations, as will be obviousto those skilled in the various arts. Those skilled in the various artsherein described will also understand that newer implementation oftechnology will become available for providing the same functions asherein described for any given apparatus. As such, the present inventionand all its preferred and alternative embodiments should be consideredboth as apparatus and as functions that are exemplary and notlimitations of the present invention. Furthermore, the present inventionhas uses well beyond theme and amusement parks, museums, resorts,casinos, airports, universities, etc. including: sporting and musicvenues, convention centers, retirement communities, air ports and evensecure office buildings.

While only certain features of the invention have been illustrated anddescribed herein, many modifications and changes will occur to thoseskilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appendedclaims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fallwithin the true spirit of the invention.

1. A game theater system comprising a gaming platform including aninteractive gaming system for conducting a physical-virtual game beingplayed by two or more gamers at a destination, comprising:identification means carried by a gamer for providing gamer identityinformation; two or more fixed or movable game access points physicallyseparated and occupying different locations within the destination,where the game access points are shared by two or more gamers, whereeach game access point determines gamer identity information bydetecting or communicating with the gamer's identification means, whereeach game access point provides the detected gamer identity informationand a game access point identification to the interactive gaming system,where each game access point receives game content from the gamingplatform for outputting to a gamer or otherwise causing a perceivableexperience for the gamer, where each gamer interacts with at least twogame access points to complete a game, and a gaming platform forcommunicating and exchanging information with the two or more gameaccess points, where the gaming platform comprises an interactive gamingsystem that receives gamer identity information in association with gameaccess point identification from a game access point substantiallyduring the time a gamer enters the proximity of the game access point,where the interactive gaming system maintains a current game staterespective of all gamers and the gaming platform further comprises agame content repository including various content associated with thephysical-virtual game, and where based at least in part upon any one of,or any combination of the received gamer identity information, gameaccess point identification and gamer's current game state theinteractive gaming system selects at least one game content fortransmission to an associated game access point to be output or causeoutput to an identified gamer.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein thegamer carries any one of, or any combination of: a smart ticketcomprising at least one remotely detectable identification meansincluding an RFID, an emitter of wireless device identification signalsor one or more unique features detectable by image processing, where theidentification means provides gamer identity information; a mobilegaming device comprising at least one remotely detectable identificationmeans including an RFID, an emitter of wireless device identificationsignals or one or more unique features detectable by image processing,where the identification means provides gamer identity information, andwhere the gamer identity information is any one of, or any combinationof gamer identification information or a mobile device identificationinformation, and where the detecting means associated with a game accesspoint further comprises a detector for detecting the identificationmeans of either or both a smart ticket or a mobile gaming device, wherethe detector remotely detects gamer identity information.
 3. The systemof claim 2 where the detecting means are further adapted to include anyone of, or any combination of: one or more cameras associated with agame access point for capturing images of clothing or stickers worn by agamer or an article or toy being carried by a gamer, where the capturedimages are processed using image analysis to determine gamer identityinformation that is any one of, or any combination of gamer personainformation or gamer gear information; pressure sensitive materialsassociated with a game access point for detecting or tracking thespecific location of a gamer with respect to the game access point afterthe gamer has first been identified by the detecting means to begenerally present at the game access point, where the pressure sensitivematerials provide gamer identity information that is any of gamerspecific location information, and one or more cameras associated with agame access point for detecting the presence and identity of a gamer ata specific location with respect to a game access point after the gamerhas first been identified by the detecting means to be generally presentat the game access point, where the one or more cameras provide gameridentity information that is any one of, or any combination of gameridentity information or gamer specific location information.
 4. Thesystem of claim 3 where a gamer is either restricted from receiving, orallowed to receive, game content from or through a game access pointbased at least in part upon any one of, or any combination of gameridentification information or the current game state, where thecombination of information includes any of the gamer's identityinformation, a mobile gaming device identification, a gamer persona, atype or identification of clothing being worn by the gamer or an articleor toy being carried by a gamer, the gamer's current location, gamepoints accrued, theme character selected, game level, tasksaccomplished, and game access points visited.
 5. The system of claim 1wherein at least one game access point outputs game content to a selectgamer as a secret message, where the gamer uses a secret message imagingdevice to receive the secret message, and where no other gamer cansubstantially receive the same secret message.
 6. The system of claim 1wherein at least one game access point receives gesture input from atleast one gamer, where gesture input includes determining a gesture bytracking the movements of an article being held and moved by the gamer,where the gesture input is communicated to the interactive gaming systemin combination with the gamer identity information and game access pointidentification, and where based at least in part upon the gamer detectedgesture the interactive gaming system selects at least one game contentfor transmission to the game access point to be output to the gamer. 7.The system of claim 1 further comprising one or more destination gameparts including objects or symbols located throughout the destination atpre-known locations with respect to the one or more game access points,where the gamer uses a mobile game device comprising a camera to capturean image of the game part, where image analysis of the captured imageprovides current gamer location information to the interactive gamingsystem including any one of, or any combination of the pre-knownlocation of the game part, identification of the game part andorientation of the mobile game device with respect to the game part, andwhere based at least in part the current gamer location information theinteractive gaming system provides to the gamer through the mobile gamedevice directions for finding or otherwise moving towards any otherdestination game part including locations that are game access pointsand that are not game access points.
 8. The system of claim 7, where thedestination game parts are tracked moving targets including servicepersonnel or a themed character, where the interactive gaming systemprovides directions to a gamer for finding a moving target based atleast in part upon the current gamer location information or otherwise aknown location of the gamer and the tracked location of the movingtarget.
 9. The system of claim 1 further comprising one or moredestination game parts including any one of, or any combination ofobjects, symbols, or moving targets including a themed character, wherethe gamer uses a mobile game device comprising a camera to capture animage of the destination game part, where the captured image is providedto the interactive gaming system as a gamer's actionable game response,and where based at least in part upon the gamer's actionable gameresponse the interactive gaming system updates the current game status.10. The system of claim 1 where two or more gamers are competing witheach other with respect to a single game being conducted over two ormore game access points.
 11. The system of claim 1 where a destinationincludes a sales point, where the sales point includes any of detectingmeans included in a game access point for detecting gamer identityinformation, where the sales point communicates with the interactivegaming system to provide gamer identity information and to receive salespoint directive information, where the sales point effects theexperience of the gamer based at least in part on the sales pointdirective information, and where the sales point effects include any oneof, or any combination of: providing a sales benefit regarding productsor services being sold by the sales point to the gamer; including gameinformation on a sales receipt being provided to the gamer; updating theidentification means of a mobile game device being sold to the gamer,and providing game content to the gamer within the sales point, whereproviding game content includes causing actuatable devices to output anyof multiple effects.
 12. The system of claim 11 where the gamer earnsdestination sales benefits by interacting with a game access point in anongoing game or by accomplishing any assigned or available tasks inaccordance with an on-going game, where tasks include visitingdestination game parts, where the visit is detected using the gamer'sidentification means or verified capturing images using a mobile gamingdevice comprising a camera.
 13. The system of claim 11 where the gameinformation included on a sales receipt is any one of, or anycombination of encoded and therefore substantially not readable by thegamer or non-encoded and therefore readable by the gamer, where thereceipt game information is usable by the gamer as a part of an on-goinggame, where the gamer uses a mobile gaming device to either enter datarelated to the game information or capture an image of the gameinformation, and where either the entered data or image are the gamer'sactionable response.
 14. The system of claim 11 where the destinationsales point is fully automated including a vending machine, where thesales point is capable of determining gesture inputs from a gamer, wheregesture inputs include the tracking of an article being moved by agamer, and where a sales point effect is based at least in part upon agesture input.
 15. The system of claim 1 where the game access point isfurther adapted to include at least one camera for capturing gamer imageinformation including video, still images and or audio of a gamer whilethe gamer is substantially interacting with the game access point or adestination game part, where the gamer image datum is provided to thegaming platform, and where the gaming platform is further adapted toinclude any one of, or any combination of: a content repository forstoring and retrieving the gamer image information; a social platformfor distributing any one of, or any combination of the gamer imageinformation or game state information, and an ad network for combiningany of the gamer image information with advertisements.
 16. The systemof claim 1 where the interactive gaming system communicates to a gamerfor the purposes of summoning a gamer to a specific destination gamepart, where the determinization to summon a gamer is based at least inpart upon any one of, or any combination of gamer identity information,the current game state, a known number of other gamers already presentor summoned to the specific destination game part, received destinationgame part information or destination game part related information,where received destination game part information includes the number ofgamers or others scheduled to be present, present, or estimated presentat the game part, and where destination game part related informationincludes a location of the game part, access times of the game part, theenvironment type of the game part including indoors or outdoors, theguest profile of the game part such as suggested age ranges, languagesspoken or available, or interest types.
 17. A game theater systemcomprising a gaming platform including an interactive gaming system forconducting a physical-virtual game being played by one or more gamers ata destination, comprising: identification means carried by a gamer forproviding gamer identity information; optional gamer input means carriedby a gamer for providing commands or actionable responses; two or morefixed or movable game access points physically separated and occupyingdifferent locations within the destination and shared by the two or moregamers, where a gamer interacts with at least two game access points tocomplete a game, and where each game access point comprises: a) gameridentification detection means for determining from the identificationmeans the gamer identity information of a gamer presently at the gameaccess point; e) optional gamer input means for determining from thegamer input means zero or more commands or actionable responses from thepresent gamer; b) communication means for providing game access pointinformation to the interactive gaming system and for receiving gamecontent from the interactive gaming system, where the game access pointinformation includes any of the gamer identity information, commands,actionable responses, and game access point identification, and d)content output means for outputting received game content to a gamer orotherwise causing a perceivable experience for the gamer based at leastin part upon received game content, and where the interactive gamingsystem receives and uses the game access point information to maintain acurrent game state and to determine and provide game content to the gameaccess point based at least in part upon any of the game access pointinformation or current game state.
 18. The system of claim 17 furthercomprising pre-known or tracked location information regarding the gameaccess points, other non-game access points, or otherwise anydestination game part, where the system is further adapted to include:mapping means for a gamer to determine or input a current gamer locationat which the gamer is present or to output directions for proceeding toa destination game part, where the mapping means is in communicationswith the interactive gaming system for providing the current gamerlocation or receiving directions to the destination game part, and wherethe interactive gaming system is further adapted to receive the currentgamer location and to determine and provide directions to a destinationgame part for output to the gamer based at least in part upon thegamer's current location and any one of, or any combination of thecurrent game state, game part information or game part relatedinformation.
 19. The system of claim 17 further comprising: one or moresales points for selling products and services to a gamer, where eachsales point comprises: a) gamer identification detection means fordetermining from the identification means the gamer identity informationof a gamer presently at the sales point; e) optional gamer input meansfor determining from the gamer input means zero or more commands oractionable responses from the present gamer; b) communication means forproviding sales point information to the interactive gaming system andfor receiving game content, sales benefits or game information from theinteractive gaming system, where the sales point information includesany of the gamer identity information, commands, actionable responses,or sales information related to a sale to the gamer; d) optional contentoutput means for outputting received game content to a gamer orotherwise causing a perceivable experience for the gamer based at leastin part upon received game content; e) sales processing means foraltering a sale to a gamer based at least in part upon the receivedsales benefits, and f) optional sales receipt generating means forproviding the gamer with a sales receipt including game information, andwhere the interactive gaming system is further adapted to receive anduse the sales point information to update the game state and todetermine and provide any of game content, sales benefits or gameinformation to the sales access point based at least in part upon any ofthe sales point information or current game state.
 20. The system ofclaim 17 where the content output means for outputting the received gamecontent is a secret message output device and where a gamer uses asecret message imaging device to receive a secret message that issubstantially not perceivable to any other gamer or on-looker.